Rhys @ 2 months & a September update

Rhys turned 2 months old yesterday!  We managed to get a few pictures, to mark her big day.

The girls playing on the play mat this morning - Natalie wanted to lay under the toys too.

Rhys doesn't have a lot of newness since last week.  Still on the 3hr plan during the day, waking up 1 - 2 times at night for food, cooing, smiling, and likes to "stand" on our laps.  She loves to sleep in the swing during the day - haven't had to resort to that at night, but it's a lifesaver during the day!

Stats:
Weight: approx 12.5lbs - we go to the Dr. next week for official 2 mo stats
Height: 22 - 23in, not sure exactly
Diapers: finishing up a pack of size 1s and then we are off to 2-land.
Clothes: comfy in her 0-3mo clothes, though not sure how much longer!

Here's a few more pictures from our week.

Swim class is Friday nights - and Natalie has so much fun!  Here's a picture of us getting ready to leave.  She is so hard to pin down to change, so we put her suit on at the house before we leave.  To keep her carseat dry, we put her diaper over the suit.  Looks funny, but it works!

She loooooves to run across the hippo.  Its a piece of foam and she loves running from one side to the other and jumping in.  By far her favorite part of the class...she even cries when she has to wait her turn.

Cheyne & Amanda were in town and brought baby Briar over for a visit.  He was crawling all over the floor and having a blast with Natalie and her balloons.  Can't wait until Natalie and Rhys can interact like this!

Pajama time - hanging out Sunday morning.

Today I've had both girls at home by myself.  First time for the whole day.  Natalie had a fever last night (it's gone now, thankfully!), so we had to keep her home from daycare.  The girls have both been so well behaved.  Almost like they know I'm alone and could use a break.  I'm sure it wouldn't be this way everyday, but I'm thankful they've had a good day.  Natalie is even napping..!  I told her "in a few minutes, you need to go take a nap" and she ran off to her room and laid down in bed!  I got about 45 minutes of silence with both girls napping and snuck in a shower at 1:45pm. Better late than never. And, thats the definition of a successful day at home for moms of newborns, right??

Rhys - 8 weeks

Rhys is growing and changing like crazy!

Around 5 weeks, she started social smiling.  She is pretty smiley after eating.  She'll just lay there and smile back at you for a while.

Around 6 weeks, she started cooing.  She ads the cutest little noises to her smiles.  After meals, she lays there and smiles and talks for a good bit.  It's good, because I've been trying to keep her awake more during the day, so she is usually so happy to be awake and talking after she eats.

She's got pretty good head control and has been lifting her head for 30 seconds - 1 minute for quite a while now.  She also likes to push her legs to "stand".
Her night-time sleep habits are all over the place.  We'll get a few nights where she goes 6 or 7 hours, and then we get a night where she is up every 2 hours to eat.  On Friday night (7.5 weeks), she went 8 hours between meals!!  Too bad that was short lived, and we were back to the usual 5 or 6 the next night.  BUT, I do know that with Natalie, she gradually extended her nighttime sleep, so these longer stretches will probably become more common, soon we hope!

During the daytime, Rhys has been really consistent.  She goes 3ish hours between meals.  Since I've been spending a lot of time at work, I'll let her go 3.5 hours if she seems content and I'm in the middle of something.  Otherwise, I keep her on the 3 hr clock.

She's definitely getting plenty to eat.  We've all been fighting a head cold, and Rhys' eyes were looking puffy and red and gooey, so I took her to the doctor just to make sure all was in order.  She weighed 11lb 12oz! At 7.5 weeks!  You know she's on the "healthy" end, when the doctor comes in and says "what have you been feeding this child?"  He wasn't concerned; said to continue with what we are doing.  Natalie's 2 month appointment was around 9 weeks and she was 11lbs, so Rhys has already surpassed that.  I think she's around 85th percentile. And - she got a good bill of health..just have to watch the congestion and make sure appetite stays up.

Look at these sweet rolls on her legs. Love them!

Rhys has been such a good baby during the past few days!  She goes right back to sleep after her 7am feeding; even without me helping her (this feels like a HUGE step for me, since she usually wants me to hold her).  Monday she fell asleep in the bouncer while I was working.  And yesterday she fell asleep in the swing.  She just kind of lays there and talks to herself and then dozes off.  It feels like there is a light at the end of the tunnel - maybe I won't have to hold her until she is 12 :)

Very rare - she fell asleep while sitting with her Daddy.

The baby acne has mostly faded.  We're still dealing with cradle cap (dry, flaky scalp).  But that looks like it's going to take some time to completely go away.  Her skin is looking so soft and squishy now!

So far, the carseat hasn't been a problem.  She kind of fusses when we put her in; especially if we aren't quite ready to leave.  But, usually just a few minutes after the car is in motion, she is quiet. Most of the time without the pacifier.

Still not a huge fan of pacifiers.  We got some of the Gumdrop pacifiers (thanks for the recommendation from Tania!), and she takes them more than the others we tried, but she still isn't really dependent on it.  Guess that is a good thing..not entirely sure yet!

We are still waiting to move her into the crib at night.  David and I are ready for her to move, but I don't think she's quite ready.  She makes tons of noise when she is settling in to sleep, and she does much better when we are near.  We put her in the cradle while we are still up at night but end up running back to the bedroom to calm her down several times. Most of the time, she just wants us to pick her up for a minute and then she is back to sleep.  This game is tiring, but would be even worse if we were having to go from our room to hers in the middle of the night.  And, we aren't really ready for her to disturb Natalie.  (although, their crying didn't seem to bother the other one in the car..it went both ways too...)

Auntie Patty gave Rhys this new flower, so I put it on and took some pictures since she was wearing red.  It's been so long since I've done a "photoshoot" where the subject doesn't run away.  So long that I have to re-learn my camera!

David was laying on the floor holding Rhys upright and Natalie decided she needed to "ride" too.  I love that she wants to be with her sister and that you can see her holding her blankie with her fingers in the holes..typical Natalie.

Natalie - 23 months

Natalie is 23 months - ok, technically almost 23.5 now that it is already the 20th, but oh well!

This girlie makes us laugh every day with the things she says and her mannerisms.  One Saturday this month, we had the following conversation from our beds (she was in her room, we in ours):
N: Mama?!....Mama?!...
M: Yes?
N: Daddy!?..Daddy?!
D: Yes, Natalie?
N: Milk?
M: Natalie, come in here.
N: Ok, Mama. I'm coooming.

It's funny (but good), we always close her door at night, but sometimes we don't latch it.  But, she always stays in her room until we come to get her.  She can even open the door on her own, but she stays put.  It's great, because we don't find her wandering the house, but it's funny that she thinks she has to stay there.

She's starting to put more and more words together for some little mini sentences. She says:
I'll get it
I got it
I'll get her (Rhys)
I'll do it
I did it

We took our first road trip this past weekend.  Natalie was pretty cranky and tired when we started our trip, but we thought she would fall asleep and it would be easy. Boy were we wrong.  She whined and cried the majority of the trip.  Luckily Rhys tuned her out and slept most of the time, but as soon as Natalie would stop screaming, Rhys started!  Natalie looked over at her and said "Rhys, ENOUGH!" haha, guess she heard that from us a few times (directed at Natalie, not Rhys).  Yesterday, she said "Rhys, STOP" when she was fussing.  Funny how she can tell Rhys that, but she doesn't obey when we ask her to stop crying!

Lately Natalie has really been into coloring.  For a while, we've just been giving her one crayon at a time, and we make her sit at the counter so we can supervise the crayon use (she did manage to color on the chair a few times, but luckily it cleaned off pretty easy).  This weekend, she and Ryan spent a good, long while coloring together.  I'd guess an hour at a time? And they did this more than once.  They made sure to cover every bit of white space on their papers.  We let Natalie have the whole box of crayons last night, and I'm pretty sure she used them all. 

We were asking her to name the colors.  Our conversation went something like this:
M (holding red): What color is this?
N: GREEN! (this is usually her first guess)
M: No, it's red.
N: Ok
M (holding blue): Natalie, how about this one?
N: Red!
M: No, it's blue
M (holding yellow): Natalie, what color is this?
N: Blue!
haha, she just usually repeats the prior color.  But, she does get orange right a lot of the time, and she does know purple, yellow and blue, but she doesn't always say them at the right time.

Shoes! This girl loves to wear my shoes around the house.

 

And look at that crazy hair..it's getting out of control.  I need to practice doing fun things with it now that it is long enough for pony tails and probably braids if I can get her to sit still long enough.  When it is wet, it is down to the middle of her back, but it springs up with curls when it dries.

She is quite the little dancer.  We will be playing in the living room and she'll hear the music on a commercial and get up and start dancing.  She pumps her arms up and out in front of her. And she pushes her hip out to the side.  I'll have to try and video because it is just hard to explain, but it's so cute.  She also likes to dance in the car, or she'll push the button on one of her toys and then jump up and try to dance before the song ends. She repeats this quite often and because most toys have short songs, the song is almost over by the time she stands up.

Jumping is also one of her favorites!  She gets some good air too! She jumps or runs Everywhere.  Last weekend I showed her how to jump like a frog..it's pretty funny, she'll crouch down and do one good frog jump, but then after that she stays on her knees and sort of lunges forward.  All while saying "ribbit" of course.

She is one picky eater..at least at home!  Apparently she eats everything at daycare and for grandma & grandpa, but at home, we struggle.  Fruits and veggies usually go over well, but pasta and ANY kind of meat is usually a no-go.  David smoked ribs one night, and Natalie wanted a bite, so when she went for bite #2, I had to take a picture.  And for the record - there was no bite #3.

Height: 35-36 inches? need to check again.
Weight: around 26lbs
Diapers: size 4 (thinking about starting potty training soon..)
Clothes: size 2T
Shoes: size 6

Can't believe I'm already planning her 2nd birthday party!  Time needs to slow down a little..seems like the past year has just disappeared.

September part I

It's been a busy few weeks, to say the least! I'm naming this post Part I, hopefully I get around to posting a Part II for the rest of the month.

September 1st marked my first day back to work. Rhys was 5 weeks old and has been going with me! I've just been working part-time. Around 5-6 hrs a day to help the office get through the September 15th deadline. It makes for some tired days! We get up after an interrupted night of sleep, get Rhys & myself dressed and ready and head to the office. After work it is dinner, baths and some fun time before Natalie heads to bed. Rhys is pretty good at the office-she spends a lot of time sleeping in my lap, in the pack n play or in my Moby Wrap. The girls have nicknamed her the "AOB" - Accounting Office Baby and have been super helpful entertaining her too. A little distracting, but overall pretty productive!










Rhys is still pretty hit or miss on sleep. Some nights I'm only up once; other nights it's every two or three hours. I'd say she's getting better in general, but at least a portion of her nights, she sleeps next to me.

If I have to guess, I'd say Natalie will be super independent, and Rhys will be more sensitive & cuddly. This child just loves to be held and snuggle with her mama!

September 3rd was our annual family reunion. Nice for us that everyone came to Pismo and we didn't have to travel. Grammy, Papa and Ryan came to stay the weekend with us. The kids had a lot of fun playing together. Here's Ryan & Natalie playing on the air mattress. don't be fooled - there was lots of jumping too.










Breakfast of champions: chocolate filled chocolate doughnuts (notice he only got 1/4 of it!)





And we got some great family shots!

Kevin and Shannah brought Liam over to visit afterwards. It was fun to have all four grandkids together for the first time. We convinced them to all sit for a picture. (took 6 adults to get 4 kids focused!)

Love the outtake too!




And some duck lips:

Monday night Natalie fell asleep at dinner! Second time ever! I guess that's what happens after 4 days at home without naps!






Friday night was Swim class. Natalie just loves it. They did a new song this week and got to jump off the side. She was so excited that She jumped in before it was time.

Here's the 4 girls lined up (Natalie is 3rd from the left):





This weekend Natalie spent the day with her Grandma & Grandpa Remillard. I think it is safe to say she had a lot of fun! Seems like she always eats good, naps, and helps clean up her toys. Sure wish she would do that at home!!

David kept Rhys on Saturday while I worked kid-free. It was good bonding time for them..first time they'd been together for so long. And she took her bottles well, so that is a good relief.

Sunday we had a lazy day at home. Natalie has been fighting a cold that she so kindly shared with the rest of us. Rhys seems to have been spared (so far anyway!), Davids got a cough, and I have some sort of sinus infection. We did go out for a quick trip to the park. Natalie loves the big kid play area and refuses to go on the little kid structures. She was entertained by the baby swings for a while though; in between trips down the big-kid slide (only the tallest one, of course!).

In the morning, Natalie & David played with playdoh while I cleaned the kitchen. She played for 30 min or so and didn't eat any!

Rhys napped on the couch for a while and Natalie thought she needed to join her!

 

I also got a hair cut. I've been wanting to cut it for a while and it was just getting too long and taking forever to deal with it in the mornings. So, I separated it into 4 ponytails and had David cutoff 8 inches to donate. Then I headed to Supercuts for a quick cleanup. It's a little shorter than I wanted, but it will grow out and it was for a good cause. I found a few organizations that take 8" of hair, but couldn't find any that would take less, at least none that use the hair for wigs. It's been 2.5 years since I last donated, but last time I had quite a bit more - closer to 11" I think.