Our helper

Natalie has been our little helper lately. We try to give Rhys and Natalie baths at the same time (Rhys is the kitchen, Natalie in the bathroom), because if we don't, Natalie wants to help
(aka play in the water while standing on the "stairs"):

A few weeks ago David was cleaning the floors and made Natalie her own special Swifter!

Too cute! And now we don't have to worry about her knocking things over and being out of control.

She's been saying funny stuff lately too. Her latest is "oh gosh!", "oh man!" and "dude!" I guess David was having a little road rage and said "Dude" and she repeated it.

We started swim lessons again, but forgot the camera the first night. Will try to remember for next week. She's in the class with some of our friends little girls and the Daddys are the ones in the pool!

The sister-transition is going well. Natalie asks about Rhys every morning when she wakes up and runs to her when she comes home. After the initial "hello" she doesn't pay her much attention. Her tantrums have been fewer and further in between, so overall pretty good!

Rhys is One Month old

Rhys is one month old today!

We celebrated with a walk on the Bob Jones Trail. Rhys made it 3/4 of the way in her car seat in the stroller before deciding her mama should hold her. Good thing we were almost back to the car!

One Month stats:
Weight: 9 lb 12 oz
Height: 20 inches (curiously the same as birth? Maybe she was smaller last month?)
Diapers: size 1 - we switched from NB this week
Clothes: some NB, some 0-3mo. NB are definitely on their way out this next week!
Sleep: we are starting to get a regular 5 hr stretch at night followed by 3 hr intervals for the rest of the day.
Food: she's had one bottle so far (tried it this week) and took 3 oz. Seemed to satisfy her, but we haven't tried again.

A couple more pictures from this week:

And, just for fun, a one month comparison with Natalie.  I didn't have any similar poses, so this is as good as it gets this time.  I'll try for a better side-by-side next month!  They're starting to look more different to me, but Rhys still reminds me a lot of Natalie.

Lots of visitors

We've had a lot of visitors the past few weeks. Here's some highlights!

Patty, Jake & Ryan were in town for a softball tournament on the 13th / 14th. We met up at the beach! Natalie hadn't been in a long time (I think around her 1st birthday actually). She thought playing in the sand was pretty fun - and I'm pretty sure she ate a good deal of it too. She played really hard and we still only got a 5 minute nap out of the day, oh well!

Rhys napped on my lap under the shade and hung out with her Auntie. Not bad a bad trip for a 17 day old!

(Patty - I had to steal some pics from you.  I realized I did take pictures, but a lot were with your camera, not mine!)

Sunday we went to watch one of Jake's games in Morro Bay. The kids loved playing in the dirt while Rhys lounged with Aunt Patty again.

Wish we lived closer and the kids could play together more often!

We had Matt, Tania, Anna, Olivier, Mason and Grandma & Grandpa over to play this weekend. The play kitchen and ride-on horses were big hits.

Aunt Tania, Grandma & Grandpa got to hold Rhys for a while (my arms and back are thankful for a little break!).

The kids had a great time chasing each other, digging out toys, jumping, twirling and running around. 4 toddlers 3 and under definitely brings a lot of energy to one room!

Last night Joe & Heather brought the girls by to meet Rhys. Heather held Rhys while the 3 girls ran around. They played so well together! Natalie loves playing with the older kids - she and Lina were doing laps around the kitchen and having a little squealing match. Maybe it was the striped pants?

Our neighbors have a little girl that is 15 days older than Rhys. Anna brought baby Lyla over to chat the other day and the babies were wearing the same outfit! Had to take a picture of them in their summer onesies. 

Lyla is 5 weeks and Rhys 3 in this picture. They weigh about the same (9+ pounds), but Lyla is a bit longer.  We were both thinking the same thing: it's a nice, warm day, and we weren't sure how long these litle outfits would fit. Rhys is size NB here and Lyla 0-3 mo.

Lots of visitors, and I know there will be more to come in the following weeks!

Sisters!

Natalie was pretty happy to find Rhys napping on the floor when she came home tonight.  She just loves her baby sister, can you tell?

3 weeks, already?

Hard for me to believe, but Rhys is already 3 weeks old? How is that possible?!



Based on our home scale she weighs upwards of 9.25lb already. She needs to slow down; this average of 1lb/wk is just too fast for me. Most of the Newborn clothes will be too small next week (not exaggerating..some onesies are already too snug and the pjs are getting too short!)



I always complain to David because Natalie is just not a snuggler. She never has been. She's always wanted her own space, her own bed, doesn't like to be rocked or sit with me on the couch. However, I think Rhys is making up for it. Guess you have to be careful what you wish for!..Rhys loves to be held and definitely prefers it to being on her own. Wonder if this is her personality or just her age. I'm hoping for a little of both as I would love to be able to put her down and get things done every now and then!

Still trying to find a pacifier that she likes. Most of the time she gives me a sour face and spits it back out. Natalie loves to give them to her though - even if Rhys doesn't want/need it! She calls it "paci" and tries to shove it in her mouth (before David or I can intervene). Trying to teach her not to pick it up..but that is tough!







David went back to work on Monday, so it's just been Rhys and I at home this week. We've been cleaning house, taking short walks, short naps, and Tuesday we even did a webinar on Real Estate Taxation! Rhys conveniently woke up during each of my breaks and lunch, so I had a rather busy day!

Sleep is going ok. We had a few nights of being up every 2 hrs - that was rough. I've been making sure she doesn't go longer than 3 hrs during the day (usually not a problem!) and trying to keep her awake a little more during daytime. Last night we got two good stretches - about 5 hrs and then 3! Progress! Hoping this continues and improves.

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Family Outing

This weekend we decided to venture out of the house for a bit.  We thought Natalie would enjoy the Zoo, so we drove up to Atascadero.  Small Zoo..I think we were there for an hour and a half and saw everything twice, at least.

I think her favorites were the giant tortoises (definitely the scientific name!), as she kept saying "Rocky!"  - the name of the tortoise at daycare.  She also thought the meerkats were pretty fun.

We got to try out the double stroller; seemed to work great as Rhys slept the whole time!  The stroller is pretty flexible - it has two seats for when the kids are both old enough to sit, but for now Rhys gets to ride in the comfy bassinet (reclined seat).  One downside: it has a carseat attachment, but there isn't enough room for the second seat when the carseat is attached.  So, the carseat essentially makes it a single stroller.

We got a bit of a later start than we wanted (hey, only an hour!), so Natalie was really ready for lunch and got a little fussy at the end.  We knew it was time to head home.  Rhys was due to eat too, so it worked out perfectly.  Except the part where Natalie didn't want to nap when we got home.  That always makes for an interesting day.

Natalie is quite interested in her baby sister.  I'm pretty sure the first thing she says when she wakes up is "baby!" or "Rhys!" and those are the first words she says when she comes home from daycare.  Any time Rhys makes a little squeak or cough, Natalie runs to her and says "ok?"  I took Natalie for a short walk tonight and she kept asking for her Daddy and Rhys the whole time we were gone.

Rhys is a good baby so far.  She eats well, to say the least!  We took her for her 2 week checkup this morning.  She weighed 8lb 4oz (up 10oz in a week!), although she had just finished eating, so her weight was probably more like 8lb - 8lb 1oz, a more reasonable increase of 6 - 7oz for the week. 

We are still getting decent sleep.  Still gotta work on Rhys being a little more independent when she sleeps.  She seems to think she needs to be within 12" of her mama at all times - day and night!  I keep putting her in the bassinet during the day so she gets used to it, but sometimes she refuses.  Although, she did take a 2 hr nap in the swing today, so that is some progress.  She is so much more cuddly than I remember Natalie being; Natalie always wanted her own space from day one!

Getting a picture of the girls together has been tough!  Natalie typically won't sit still long enough, or the camera catches a blurry shot because she is moving around.  When we ask Natalie if she wants to hold Rhys, she says "yes! picture?" haha.  I guess she knows that we want to get a picture of them together.  When we got the camera out, she wanted to take the picture, so we bribed her by letting her play with our old camera (the one that we stopped using 3 years ago because sometimes random lines show up on the pictures. So instead of getting rid of it, we just stashed it in the electronics pile..no idea why, but glad we have it for Natalie to play with).  Here's a sample of what we got: