Gracie-isms

From Grace to Daddy, after her bath and wrapped up in her hooded towel:

Grace: "I'm a vegetable!"

Daddy: "Oh really? What kind of vegetable are you?"

Grace: "I'm a... I'm a... I'm a quash!"

Mama Diaries - Dec 15

9am - Wake Andrew up to nurse him while reading my Bible. Enjoy some snuggle time before hearing the brush pick-up truck. Hear Grace a few minutes later; I snatch her out of bed and run downstairs to see if we can see the crane picking up brush, but we just miss it. Grace isn't worried - "we'll see it next time, maybe". Dress Grace, diaper Andrew, dress Andrew, diaper Grace.

Grace is pretty clingy this morning; I'm guessing because I haven't had a "normal" day at home with her since last Friday. It's been a fun, but busy couple of days (well, excepting Monday when I was so dizzy I had to spend most of the day in bed), but it often throws her for a loop after too many days without more regularity.

10am -Get Grace's breakfast started with a banana, while I work on laundry and bring Andrew downstairs. She gets really upset though that I didn't let her sit on the counter and help make her oatmeal. After breakfast, she helps me pull the clean diapers out of the dryer and into a basket. She's getting to be a real help!

11:00 am - Andrew gets a bit fussy while I'm trying to clip his fingernails (definitely easier while he's asleep!) and Grace tells me its his "eating time" and "feed Andrew and he stop crying". I nurse him a few minutes, then put him down for his nap.

11:30 am - I run upstairs to grab socks to take Grace outside to play. When I come back down, I find her in the study kneeling before our (Caleb's and mine) chess game. Grace wants to know if she "can look at them". Caleb forfeits the game (finally! ;-) ) and tells her she can, and Grace says "I'm growed up!" We'd been telling her when she's older we'll teach her out to play, and now she's happily playing with the chess pieces, enjoying her "growed-up-ness".

She then finds Daddy's magnetic building set and asks if she can "please play with it?" So we sit on the floor and play for a good while. Grace wants to build a house and make a person out of them, and then enjoys putting all the little balls back in the boxes.

12:00 pm - We snuggle on the couch and watch Barney. Then Grace helps me make her pb & jelly sandwich; she carries everything to her little table for me, then I let her practice spreading the pb and jelly, then put the sandwich together for Mama to cut in two.

1:30 pm - Put Grace down for her nap, and rest a bit myself while both the kiddos sleep. Sweep the house, work on laundry and do a bit of Christmas shopping online.

3pm - Andrew's awake, so nurse him while Christmas shopping, change his diaper and play awhile. We play peek-a-boo while Mama folds a couple loads of laundry.

5pm - Put Andrew down for a nap and get Grace up. She helps me put her laundry away - I sit in the floor with a pile of hangers and as I put a shirt on a hanger, she hangs it up in her closet. Then she put her pants and pajamas in the little nightstand I set up for a small "dresser" for her. She really is getting to be a good helper!

We then spend a long while playing "put the laundry basket on Mama's head". Grace would pretend it was a drum, wait for me to say "what's that drumming on my head?" and burst into giggles. Occasionally she'd steal my line and say "whose drumming on my head?" before I could, followed my more giggles. We then head dowstairs where she plays with the chess pieces in the study, then we go outside and run until Daddy finishes work.

5:50 pm - Daddy's done! And Mama fixes a quick dinner of mac & cheese and baked beans, with hot dogs in both dishes (a merging of our two family traditions for a mac & cheese dinner).

7:00 pm - Daddy bathes Grace while Mama & Andrew fold more laundry, then Mama reads stories with Grace while Daddy bathes Andrew.

8:40 pm - Both kiddos in bed, and Mama & Daddy get some time to finish laundry, cleaning the kitchen and computer work.

10:40 pm - Mama decides it's time to stop blogging and head to bed!

Ready for Christmas!

Daddy Diary, 12/04

8:00 AM -- Got up

8:30 AM -- Heard the Saturday morning garbage truck in the apartments behind our house. Heard Grace cry out a second later. Scooped her up, and reassured her that it was a friendly garbage truck. She wanted to go see it, so I wrapped a blanket around her and we went down the alley to peek over the fence and see it. We caught up to it a ways down the alley and peeked through a crack in the fence to watch it, but "it was stuck" for a long time and not doing anything. Watched it eat some more garbage, came back to the house. Grace wanted to be wrapped up like a baby, so I swaddled her, and we played "My Baby"

11:05 AM -- Planet Earth has finished, and Grace has wandered off to the playroom to go get something. I set Andrew up on the couch and take his outfit to the

11:16 AM -- We hear a garbage truck. Grace is scared and wants to hide. I wrap her up in a blanket ("My Baby"), and we read and sing some songs on the couch. She suddenly remembers that she wanted that orange from breakfast after all.

Ate the orange, finally took that applesauce to Laura, who was asleep with "How to be a winner at chess" and "The story of Christianity" next to her. Oh, I love my wife!

Mimi called to see how things were going. It's ironic that the first time that we're all sick and both of our moms are sick too!

Grace found the napkin that I dropped on the floor while I was updating, and she made it into a baby blanket. I got her a clean napkin.

12:03 PM -- We changed Purple Baby's diaper, Grace stubbed her toe.

geomag

trhomas

Origami

5:00 -- Laura went back to bed, Grace awake

Played outside for a while

Came inside, played Play-doh while I heated up the soup that Laura made last night

Ate supper together, Grace told us that Andrew "has an Andrew award"

Laura took Grace, I changed Andrew's outfit (outfit #4, fleecy onesie with snowmen on it)

Epiphany about "Wear snug-fitting not flame resistant"

Tickled Andrew, tummy-time with Andrew

Laura took Andrew upstairs, played with Grace

Sleeping through the night!

Andrew's officially sleeping through the night now! Or if not, at least he's down to one 3am feeding. Several nights now he's slept from 10:30 or so until 6:30 in the morning, and the rest of the nights this week he's woken at 3:30 and 6:30. Sheer bliss! I think it's largely due to the fact he can finally successfully get his thumb in his mouth. For the last couple weeks he's been sucking (rather loudly, I might add) at his fist in hopes of finding that thumb, and once I watched him as he'd simultaneously turn his head to the side, dart his fist towards his mouth, and open his mouth. Over and over again. It really looked like he thought if he just did it fast enough, he'd catch it! I'd really meant to avoid thumb-sucking with his pacifier, but as much as he's liked it before, now he frequently spits it out and goes for the thumb. And it's kinda exciting seeing his personality and motor skills develop. We're open to advice! :-)

I do really enjoy our night-time snuggles though and will miss them when they're gone, but it's alot easier to handle both of them during the day when I get to sleep in those 3 hour blocks! Caleb's been great about watching him from 7 till 9 on the mornings I really needed the extra sleep (like, every morning for those first 10 weeks!), but it's sure nice being able to get my day started earlier.

He's started really engaging his toys lately too... this afternoon, I held his (hand-me-down from Grace; thank you, Joel & Sarah-Jean! ) carseat mobile over him while he laid on our bed, and he'd happily bat at the dangling bugs (they're really cute bugs!). Then he started grasping at one of them and just held on for quite a while. It was pretty sweet just watching him figuring it out.

Halloween 2010

We cheated a bit this year and did some costume recycling, but the kiddos hardly minded. Especially once we asked Grace if she wanted to dress up like Buddy, the lab belonging to a lady down the street - she loves to run out and pet himwhenever we see them walk by. I figure there'll be plenty of years to come to get more creative in our costuming! :-)

It was fun though; the Methodist church a street over from our house was hosting a Trunk or Treating event, with a hotdog supper and an organ concert. We timed it for just half the concert, not certain how long Grace would enjoy sitting and listening, but it was alot of fun. At the end, they did a Disney sing-along, and she was just catching on to Chim-Chimeney from Mary Poppins when they finished, and she was a bit disappointed they weren't going to sing it again. But then she got really excited when they started When You Wish Upon a Star - she said, "I know this one!" I think she was remembering Twinkle, Twinkle, but she still enjoyed hearing words she knew.

We did some Trick-or-Treating on the way home; Grace enjoyed getting things in her bag (thanks, Leslee!), but was a little confused why we weren't going in anywhere. When we were almost back to our house, we saw Pappy & Mimi who'd stopped by on their way home from Arkansas with a big bag of candy to satisfy all the trick or treaters who dropped by. (This was the first year Caleb and I've actually lived somewhere that kids came by, and totally forgot to stock up on candy. Oops! We'll be stocked up come next year though.)

11 Weeks & getting more sleep!

Andrew's eleven weeks old today, and slept through the night last night for the second time! The first time was Oct 30, after Mary's birthday party. I think he was so stimulated, he didn't sleep as much that evening as usual, and I ended up nursing through dinner. Didn't make dinner quite as easy to eat, but he slept from 10:30 to 5:30! So the past couple days I've been working to duplicate that and keep him awake and nursing more in the evening, and last night it worked - again he slept from 10:30 to around 5:30. Though both times, Mama was still up every couple hours waiting for her baby to wake up.

Daily Joys - Thursday, Oct 28

• During breakfast today, Grace made a little hole in her oatmeal & applesauce mixture, and told me it was a bed; now she just needed a baby. She then proceeded to put a piece of banana peel across the top of her bowl, as the roof (which sounded more like "woof"). At my suggestion, she then ate her banana down to size, and stuck it in the bowl as the baby. Later, when I tried to get her to eat her banana, she just gave me this quizzical look and said "it's the baby!"
• Andrew actually slept in three-hour increments again last night! Even though he's still nursing twice a night, it's amazing the difference when I get those longer sleep periods in between. (Though when I mean slept in three-hour increments, that actually means three hours from the beginning of one nursing session to the next; but in between feeds and diaper changes, it still leaves a good two hours of solid sleeping for Mama.)
• It was pretty chilly this morning, so I put him in his little pumpkin outfit - it's warm and soft, and quite adorable! He has no idea how cute he looks. :-D
• I changed Andrew's diaper while Grace was eating breakfast, and as soon as I got that poopy diaper off, he was just gave me the biggest grin! Talk about pay-back for all the work of Mommy-ing. :-D
  
• While changing his diaper, I heard Grace saying "shoo bug, shoo bug!" I settled Andrew, got a tissue and went to take care of the bug (sure enough, a little gnat walking around her high-chair tray), at which she exclaimed "No Mommy! I shoo him, with my hand!"
• This afternoon, I was going through our mail and turned around to realize Grace had scooped a handful of dirt, baby basil plants and all, from our little herb garden. I explained to her that she hurt the baby plants, and she told them "I'm sorry!". Later, we were playing out front, and while Grace was playing in the flower beds, I pulled a couple weeds to her great consternation - "No Mama! Plants!" - and she picked up one of the weeds and tried to stick it back in the dirt. Oh, I love her! :-)
• While Grace napped this afternoon, I stuck Andrew in my sling and vaccuum the downstairs, then we took a little walk. I realized I haven't often taken the time to do that with just him like I did with Grace, and it made for a really restful afternoon.

Children Update

When I got Grace up from bed this morning, she walked in her closet and told me she was going "grocery shopping". Then she ran back and asked for a hug and kiss, and then back off into her grocery store, closing the door behind her. A minute or so later, she knocked on the door, and when I asked "who is it?", she told me "the neighbors!". She also got her first haircut two nights ago; just a little bit off her bangs which were in her eyes, but the last two mornings when I've gotten her up, she's told me "first haircut! In bathroom." Some other Gracie-isms -

• "what happened?", whenever Mom or Dad move something around, like the basket of kid shoes. Usually said in a very concerned tone, with her arms emphatically gesturing.
• "I love him!" - Often in reference to Andrew, but sometimes a random toy, like the picture of the "man in his nightcap" she accidently pulled out of her Night Before Christmas pop-up book.
• "It's won-derful!" - Again, said very emphatically with gestures. I suspect she picked this up from her WeeSing DVD.
• "I don't like it. I don't like it at all!" - Often referring to diaper changes, but last week she said this about her blue, singing hippo. Followed a couple mornings later by "I love him!"
  

Andrew's starting to play with his toys finally, though he easily gets overwhelmed by them still. But yesterday, I laid him on our bed and dangled some rings in front of his face, and he'd bat at them awhile. But when I try a more complex toy, he immediately makes a face and starts quietly fussing. He's getting really good at holding his head up now when I have him up on my shoulder, and he's still such a happy baby! As soon as I get within his view, he just smiles and grins!

Daily Log #4: Week 8, 10/20/2010

Andrew's two months old today!

9:20 am Nurse Andrew 20 minutes while reading my Bible, then leave Andrew dozing on our bed while I run for a quick shower. Grace is waking up.


10:00 am - Get Grace up, and finally get her to wear one of my favorite shirts she has - a red and white plaid peasant blouse with Winnie the Pooh on it. I think it might be the first time I've gotten it on her actually... Caleb helps me carry her downstairs while I get Andrew, and change their poopy diapers. Start boiling water for Grace's breakfast, but when she sees the soggy Raisin Bran Caleb made for me, she wants that too. (I've never been a big fan of Raisin Bran, but when Caleb inadvertently discovered it forms a brown, sweet mush when left too long in milk, I found my new favorite breakfast cereal. Grace agrees, it's yummy!) Andrew's getting awfully sleepy, so after Grace is settled in her high chair with her mushy Raisin Bran, I take him upstairs for an outfit change (he needed it), a quick feeding, and lay him in his crib. He's out within minutes.

10:40 am - Update my blog while waiting for more Raisin Bran to get soggy. Grace finishes playing with her cereal, so I clean her up while singing made-up versions of the Heigh-Ho song from Snow White. Grace likes it anyways. Then I get out my broom and sweep up the kitchen, and Grace runs to find her little broom and dust pan set to help Mommy. Grace asks for a drink, and given the choice between apple juice and "bunny milk", wants the "bunny milk". (Thanks to my mom, who thought a funny name for plain milk would make it more palatable. It worked!) I reheat the water from Grace's oatmeal, and use it to mop half the kitchen floor, while Grace sweeps up the other end. (Yes, I was very careful!)

11:15 am - I ask Grace if she wants to play with her pom-poms (one of our favorite dollar store finds!), and she's all for it. Only she has to spend 15 minutes carefully setting up all her dolls in chairs around the coffee table first. She needed my help carrying her little rocking chair (thanks, Mimi & Pappy!), but she showed me precisely where she wanted it. Each doll then got their own cup of pom-poms, sitting on its own coaster. When Amy dropped one, she even taught her to help clean it up!

11:30 am - I hear Grace calling "Oh, music!" and then "where's Hum-Bear?", which are two lines from one of her favorite Wee-Sing movies. We then had to go outside and walk around knocking on trees, just like Hum-Bear does in the movie, until we heard a plane going overhead - "there it is!". Once we were outside, of course we had to swing too. Once I pointed out to Grace that her shadow was also swinging, she spent the rest of the time peering over the side of her swing watching her shadow. And making sure he was buckled up too.

[Daddy note: my office window faces the front of the house, so I heard Grace and Laura calling for the music and took a quick break to open the window and look out. Once Grace saw me, she got a big grin on her face and she asked "Daddy all done?". No, Daddy was just taking a break. Back to work... ]

12:00 pm - Back inside for a quick snack at her little table. She's gotten better at staying put while eating, as I've gotten better at taking her food away if she doesn't. Imagine that. She was disappointed I didn't let her help take Daddy's leftover pizza back to him, so I had to make him a second (slightly healthier) plate so she could help carry it once she was done. She was very careful to carry it with two hands, and only lost one carrot that rolled off. After she gave Daddy his plate, she went back to look for the carrot, which I'd already picked up. She's a good little helper though!

7:35 pm - I do our reading flashcards with Grace while we wait for Caleb to take cookies to our neighbors.

7:38 pm - Grace uses our flashcards as food for her doggy.

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

I love you so much, and it's been a wonderful three years with you! You've been the best husband to me any girl could ever hope for.

Love,
Laura

For the grandmas...:-)

Daily Log #2: Week 8, 10/13/2010

2:30 am - Up with Andrew for half an hour, nursing, changing his diaper, and then swaddling and giving him his pacifier till he's back asleep in the crib.

3:00 am - Mama back to bed.

5:50 am - Up and nurse, change his diaper again, and feel something wet and warm all over my hand. Change his outfit, swaddle and put back in his crib.

6:25 am - Andrew's still fussing, and I'm pretty tired so hand off to Caleb.

7:00 am - Andrew's asleep, and Caleb's up for the day while I'm back to bed for a couple more hours.

9:00 am - I wake up and feel quite rested for a change. Andrew just woke up too, and Caleb brings him upstairs. I nurse him in our bed and read my Bible and Andrew dozes on and off.

9:50 am - Run for the shower while Andrew dozes on our bed, and Grace is still content in her bed.

10:20 am - Andrew's still asleep, so get Grace up and dressed. We head downstairs and play for awhile. I'm hoping to make some pumpkin Swedish Spritz cookies to take to our neighbors, but realize the cookie press hasn't been unpacked yet. Spend awhile looking for it while fixing breakfast for me and Grace.

11:00 am - Nurse Andrew 10 minutes while Grace finishes her breakfast. Clean her up, and Caleb searches for the cookie press. He finds it and has Grace bring it to me. Thus throughout the day, she referred to it as a "big present".

11:15 am - Play in playroom; I try putting Andrew on his playmat, but he's a bit fussy. He has a few minutes of tummy time, then I sit and hold him while watching Grace play. She's been putting her headband on her monkey, and then running her little car down the spiral ramp we got for free out of someone's garage. While I was trying to clean up some of our breakfast mess, she found her flashcards and dumped them all over the floor, and then took apart the box. After which she found the tape dispenser, and pulled off a long piece, until I noticed what she was doing and cut it off for her. She then spent quite a few minutes making bandages for her fingers with her piece of tape.

11:50 am - Nursed Andrew a bit more as he was seeming fussy still and a bit hungry. Grace was getting ready to change one of her doll's diapers, but instead start pressing on her chest, looking rather like she was doing the heimlech maneuver. When I asked her about it, she said something about stickers in her mouth, and brought her doll over to me to fish them out. Sure enough, the doll has a hole for a mouth so she blows air when you press on her tummy, and two little stickers where wedged down in there.

12:00 pm - Finish nursing Andrew and put him in the pack 'n play so I can fish stickers out of a doll's mouth.

12:10 pm - Go check on Andrew in the playroom, and notice that Grace is using the hand towel out of the bathroom as a dolly blanket. Andrew's looking awfully sleepy, but I realize he can't sleep very well in the pack 'n play with Grace playing in the playroom, so carry him upstairs and put him down in his crib. Rub his forehead for a few minutes while he sleepily sucks on his pacifier, and he looks to be well on his way out. I spend a few minutes rinsing the poop out of his pajamas from a diaper blow-out last night, gather up the laundry and take it downstairs to put on a load, and notice that there's enough for at least two loads now. Grace comes in the laundry room talking about "helping Mommy", and I realize she's got the "We Help Mommy" book and another Little Golden Book she picked out to read. I make a quick trip to the bathroom and regret the lack of a hand towel.

12:20 pm - I decide to ignore the messes (though I do get Grace to help me pick up the flashcards all over the floor), and read books with Gracie. First though, she wants help putting on her pink raincoat that Daddy found in the boxes he opened this morning. I get the zipper started, and she pulls it up the rest of the way. Then I sit down on the couch, and pull her up with me, but she scrambles across my lap and lays down like I hold Andrew. So I snuggle her and we read a couple books. One of them is a "what will I be when I grow up" sort of book, and when we reached the firefighter page, Grace told me she was going to be a firefighter when she grows up, but she needs a pink hat. And a kitten.

12:40 pm - Grace and I mix up some cookie dough to make some pumpkin Swedish Spritz cookies. She sits on the counter and helps dump in the flour and baking powder. Definitely makes things a bit messier, but she's so excited to help, it's worth it.

1:00 pm - I run to the bathroom, re-discover the missing hand towel and reclaim it from the playroom. I put Grace in her highchair, and heat up some leftover split-pea soup for her, Daddy and me. Eat mine in between baking a couple batches of our pumpkin cookies. Clean up Grace and scoop the split-pea soup out of her bib. Take Daddy his soup. Eat Grace's leftover soup.

1:45 pm - Put Grace down for her nap. Andrew's wide awake, so take him downstairs.

2:20 pm - Nurse for 20 minutes while checking email.

2:40 pm - Put Andrew in the swing so I can finish baking the cookies and start cleaning up.

3:15 pm - Change Andrew's diaper and get him dressed and ready to run some errands with Mama.

5:00 pm - Arrive back home. Andrew's awake, and Grace is happily playing in her bed, so I take him upstairs and get Gracie up. I nurse Andrew on her big girl bed while Grace lines up all her toybins on the foot of the bed and carefully fills the "carseats" with her dolls and stuffed animals. And then the whole lot of us headed for the library, where Grace got a Goldbug book for us to read. And then she and Andrew had some tummy time together on her bed.

5:50 pm - Caleb finishes work and plays with Grace awhile while I take care of Andrew who's getting a bit fussy.

6:00 pm - Change Andrew's diaper and nurse him for another 15 minutes or so. Naturally, he poops again, so I change his diaper again, while Caleb plays with Grace. Pastor Lovell stops by to pick up another load of boxes, and our living room suddenly looks twice as big.

6:40 pm - Loaded up the kids in our new double stroller (new for us, anyways), and headed down to the Fiesta for dinner and some grocery shopping. Andrew's asleep by the time we get there. While I'm checking out, Caleb and Grace get ice cream for us to split. When Grace realized she couldn't hold the cup herself, she got pretty upset. I couldn't blame her - who wants to be babyfed ice cream? So Caleb ran back and got a second cup that he cut down to size for her. Caleb good-naturedly pushed the stroller so I could eat ice cream on the walk home (and "baby-feed" him a few bites!).

9:00 pm - Caleb's washing Grace up while I'm working on the kitchen and moving along the laundry. Andrew's still in his carseat (it fits in the stroller) and just waking up. And I'm pooped! I'm not sure I've sat down today for more than 5 minutes other than dinner and driving errands earlier.

9:10 pm - Andrew's back asleep in his carseat, so I head upstairs and join Caleb and Grace. When Grace sees me, she moves over on her big girl bed and pats the spot next to her for Mommy to lay down. While Caleb reads her a Bible story, Grace alternates between snuggling between us to climbing all over Mommy, but she was so sweet and snuggly, I didn't mind a bit. At one point, she patted me and said "Grace's mommy, not Grandma's mommy". I take over with Grace so Caleb can finish some things with work, and we have a really enjoyable time reading our three books, then taking an unfruitful trip to the potty. Afterwards, I laid her in her pack 'n play, tucked her in, and sang a verse of "All Creatures". While saying goodnight at the door, she asked for a kiss on her cheek, and then wanted a hug - how could a Mommy resist?

9:50 pm - Grace is resting, and Andrew's still asleep. Oops - I'm probably going to regret leaving him there in about two hours. I've got the cookie press still soaking in the sink, laundry in the basket upstairs to fold, laundry in the dryer, laundry in the washer, and a mess in the playroom, but I think at this point, it's all going to wait till tomorrow. It's been an exhausting, yet enjoyable day. Thank you, God, for two beautiful children and a wonderful husband!

Daily Log #1: Week 8, 10/12/2010

We've had some pretty short nights with Andrew lately, and I'm ready to get him down to just one waking a night, so I thought it'd be worthwhile to keep a detailed log for a few days and work towards getting him on a rough schedule. It's funny - he doesn't cry like Grace did, or fight sleep, he just wakes and fusses pretty frequently. I'll get up and give him his pacifier, and he'll fall right back asleep, but about the time I'm getting most comfortable in bed, he wakes and fusses again until I go in to him.

With Grace, we'd sometimes have nights where she'd just cry and cry unless we were holding her and doing deep knee bends (you think I'm joking), and so this time through still seems easy by comparison, but for such a quiet little guy, I'm still getting very little sleep (well, until 7 in the morning or so, when Caleb gets up with Andrew and lets me sleep another hour or two. Not ideal, however, as I'd really rather sleep at night and have some time in the morning before Grace wakes up to, I don't know, maybe shower?) Anyways, here goes for the first of our logs...

7:00am - Nursed Andrew in bed with us for about 30 mins, left him asleep under Daddy's care and ran off to Starbucks for some much-needed Mama-time (and a quick grocery trip). I had a really enjoyable couple hours reading my Bible and journaling, and mapping out what I hope to accomplish with our kids and home this week. As part of that, I'm going to try keeping a detailed daily log the rest of the week and try to figure out Andrew's optimal nap and sleep times. (Last night was pretty rough - from 1:30 on, I was up with him nearly every hour. He doesn't really cry, but he gets fussy-sounding enough I'm afraid he'll wake up Grace. Sometimes he seemed really hungry, but other times he just wanted his pacifier, and still others I really have no idea...)

10am - Andrew woke up right around the same time as I got home and Grace woke up. Daddy breaked from work and watched them a few minutes while I put groceries away and dumped the coffee grounds I got from Starbucks on our new compost heap (or what will hopefully turn into compost one day; right now it just seems like a large buffet for the flies.)

10:15 am - Nursed Andrew for 15 minutes while riding the backseat of Grace's "car" (ie. her bed).

10:30am - "Played" with Grace in her room for awhile. She was still pretending to drive her car, after buckling all her baby dolls in their "carseats". Put Andrew on his playmat for awhile downstairs while I fixed oatmeal for me and Grace. Took a picture with my cellphone of Grace wearing her headband to send Mimi, who's out of town for the week.

11:15am - Andrew was starting to get fussy, so I changed his diaper and put him down in his pack 'n play with his pacifier. He quieted immediately, so I went back to a late breakfast with Grace and filled in this log.

11:30am - Got some yogurt and applesauce for Grace, started a load of diapers and checked on Andrew, who is sleeping soundly. Grace finishes her breakfast and has a blast pouring her water back and forth from her cup to her bowl. She's trying so hard to be careful, I let her do it. :-)

11:45 am - Gave Grace some soap bubbles to play with while I work on finishing the dishes from last night and empty the dishwasher. Use wheresmycellphone.com to find my cell. Find my cell in the playroom and be thankful Andrew's a sound sleeper. Add blue food coloring to my dishwater in an attempt to make blue bubbles; it doesn't work. Kill a mosquito with my bare hands (the things you do for your children...).

11:50 am - Andrew's fussing; give him his pacifier and see if he falls back asleep. Hurriedly put away rest of the dishes.

12:00 pm - Get Andrew, change Grace into clean (and dry!) clothes, and then nurse while playing with Grace. Andrew dozes in my arms a few minutes. Play our "reading game" with Grace.

12:20 pm - Play in the playroom with the kids. Andrew has some tummy time, then watches himself in his little mirror. Grace changes her monkey's diaper, then makes macaroni and cheese in her little kitchen. Grace helps me wipe off the walls where the workmen got some dirt in the hallway, then uses the sponge to clean Mama's vacuum and Grace's vacuum. And then the sponge becomes a bed for Caleb's old Chewbacca pez dispenser. Andrew gets a diaper change, I make some phone calls and Grace plays by herself awhile.

1:00 pm - Andrew's starting to yawn a bit, so put him down in the pack 'n play with his pacifier. Grace spends quite awhile playing with her "card bucket" - putting her old credit cards in a yogurt tub with a slit in the lid I made for her over a year ago. She hasn't touched it in ages, but seems totally taken with it today, and puts them in and dumps them out over and over. I'm a bit reluctant to interrupt her for lunch and naptime.

1:20 pm - Fix Grace a cheese sandwich, and heat up some chili leftovers for Caleb and me. Andrew looks to be asleep. Grace and I eat lunch at her little table; Andrew's apparently not asleep, but happy as long as he has his pacifier.

1:45 pm - Put Grace down for her nap. Andrew looks asleep, but periodically wakes a bit and fusses quietly. Work on laundry a bit and finish emptying the dishwasher.

2:10 pm - Andrew's definitely not asleep, but still really quiet, so I think I'll lay down and rest a bit while I can.

3:10 pm - I can hear Grace happily playing upstairs, but not quite sure if she's waking up from her nap, or if she's been playing the whole time and hasn't been asleep yet, so I'll leave her a little longer.

3:30 pm - Both kids are definitely awake.

3:45 pm - Nurse Andrew 20 minutes or so while watching Grace play in her room.

5:30 pm - Put Andrew down for a nap in his crib with his pacifier. Grace gave him his little teddy bear, and sang All Creatures to him.

5:40 pm - Andrew starting to fuss, so gave him his pacifier and rubbed his forehead for a few minutes until he started to fall asleep.

6:00 pm - The brush truck came to pick up all the tree branches we'd had pruned about a month ago. (It didn't occur to us till too late that you should wait till the pickup week to have that done. Fortunately, none of our neighbors reported us, but our grass is a tad worse for the wear.) Caleb heard them coming, and we all ran outside to watch. Grace loves big trucks right now, but the claw and noise made her a bit nervous, and she clung to my neck the whole time. She was really excited though, if a little relieved they left the trees in our yard alone.

6:25 pm - Andrew's fussing again; maybe a half hour nap? He still looks pretty sleepy, so gave him his pacifier and waiting to see if he'll fall back asleep. He doesn't. My dad arrives for dinner (my mom's out of town), and he and Caleb play with Grace outside awhile while I fix dinner and watch Andrew in his swing.

6:45 pm - Dinner - taco salad

7:15 pm - Nurse Andrew for 20 minutes or so. Finish dinner and cleanup while Dad holds the baby.

8:30 pm - Nurse a few more minutes and change Andrew's diaper while Caleb gets Grace ready for bed.

8:45 pm - Give Andrew a bath, and nurse a few more minutes. We're trying the "tank him up" method tonight, I suppose. Once Caleb finishes with Grace, we sit on the couch awhile enjoying our happy, well-fed, surprisingly awake little guy until he starts looking sleepy and yawning.

9:30 pm - Put Andrew down in the pack 'n play. He fusses every few minutes for awhile, and we keep giving him back his pacifier.

9:50 pm - Turned on a fan for white noise and rubbed his forehead awhile, and it seems Andrew's finally really asleep.

10:30 pm - Move Andrew upstairs to his crib for the night. We'll see how this goes...

Sleeping Baby

Since Andrew's such an easy sleeper (and I want to keep him that way!), I've been trying to follow more of a schedule with him. Yesterday evening, he'd fallen asleep around 6:30, and Caleb and I decided we should wake him up around 9 so he wouldn't take his long stretch of sleep during the evening instead of at night. Caleb carried him out into the living room, and that little guy slept right through a diaper change, so we jostled him, poked him, kissed him, bounced him, tried to nurse him, talked to him, kissed him some more, put him on the floor for some tummy time, put him on the floor leaning on the boppy, put him on the couch, tried to nurse some more, tickled his feet, gave him tummy time on mommy, and finally gave up and put him in his crib.

Firefighter Gracie

While Caleb was still off on his paternity leave, we took the kids down to the Museum of Natural Science and History. Most of it we skipped over, but Grace had a blast in the children's museum. She's a huge fan of fire trucks and garbage trucks right now, so this was a total hit.

Precious moments...

A couple days ago, I'd been having a difficult time getting Grace to come downstairs and eat lunch, and I'd been getting pretty frustrated with her. But totally out of the blue, Grace went over and leaned on her "big girl bed", clasped her hands together and started to thank God for "my bed, by babies", and a few other things I couldn't quite make out. I do love being her mama!

Andrew's getting bigger...

He'll be six weeks tomorrow, and he's a fast-growing little guy! He's still keeping his mama and daddy pretty tired, but overall he's quite the easy-going baby, and can sleep right through his big sister's loving kisses and happy shrieks (though we're working with her on that one...)

He's been working on holding his head up, though it's still awfully wobbly, and he only lasts a few seconds before he has to take a breather. When he's on his tummy on my chest though, he can squirm his way up till his head's right under my chin - to mama's delight.

Now that my life is being a mama anyways, it really doesn't seem that much more work adding in a second (though I think I got off easy so far!), and it's so enjoyable watching the two of them grow. And there's nothing quite so wonderful as snuggling on the couch with the two of them!

Our Little Grace is growing up

We have a baby! :-)

So I know we've been horribly remiss in posting these past few months, but man, they've been busy! We've moved to Dallas, bought our first house, and now we have our adorable little Andrew, and he's already three weeks old! It's been a really enjoyable three weeks getting to know our new little guy.

We had his two-week check-up last week, and he'd already grown from 6lb 15oz at birth to 8lb 10oz. When we brought him home, his newborn clothes were too big for him, and now he's already outgrowing them! It sure is fun watching babies grow-up though! Now that we've been through it once with Grace, it makes me even more look forward to seeing what kind of little boy our Andrew will grow up to be.
He's a pretty laid-back little guy right now - our nights are still a bit rough (as expected with a newborn!), but he's a good sleeper overall, and unlike his fiesty big sis, he stays asleep when you put him somewhere, which makes things surprisingly easier.
I've still never tried managing the two of them by myself; Caleb has some time off work, and both of our moms have been a huge help these past few weeks with watching Grace and bringing meals.




Grace has been handling all the transitions really well, though she has had a few melt-downs where she wanted Daddy to "nurse baby brother!" or put her baby dolls in the swing with him. I've felt really bad I haven't been able to play with her more like we used to since I got home from the hospital; I overdid it a bit the first week, and landed myself back in the bed for the second and it was really frustrating not being able to play with my little toddler like she wanted me to. We've had some fun snuggle times on the couch though!

It was so sweet when Grandma & Grandpa brought her to the hospital the morning after Andrew was born. She came in with her arms full with two of her dollies, and said "Mama! Daddy!". But as soon as she saw Baby Brother, she dumped the dollies on the bed and stretched up her arms saying "hold baby brother!". She sat up on the hospital bed with me, and we helped her hold him in her lap, and she started talking about how "baby brother come out of mama's tummy". She was so excited he was finally here, and still loves to hold and rock and sing to him.

We've had a few times where she wanted to wear his clothes or sleep in his bed or something, but overall she's been really good at understanding what things are too little for Gracie, and enjoying those that are too big for baby Andrew.

Baby Andrew is here!

 

Andrew was born a week ago today, August 20, at 2:15 in the morning. More photos and details as we have time! :-)

Grace likes...

Tonight at supper, Grace told us she "like blueberry, like helicopoly, like Mary Mack". (That last one is a book we had from the library back in Bellevue based on the Mary Mack rhyme.) It was a bit random, but really cute how particular and emphatic she was in letting us know.

We have a house!!!

 

:-) :-) :-)

Sorting Silverware

This afternoon, Grace really wanted to see what was going on as I was emptying the dishwasher. I pulled over her little stool and set it up next to the silverware drawer, and after I dried each spoon or fork, I'd hand it to her and she'd put it in the tray for me. I had to show her where I wanted them to go when I switched between spoons and forks, but she'd proudly put each subsequent one where I'd pointed. It was alot more fun than doing it by myself, and she actually saved me some stooping and bending (which is getting a bit harder with a growing belly!). And she so loves helping Mama! :-)

Dancing Gracie!

Our Little Sleepyhead

She couldn't leave her baby bed without every single one of them...

So big, and so tiny!

At the dinner table tonight, Grace was chattering away as she often does when she's starting to get tired, and at some point she looked at me put her arms out and said "Mama - so big!" I told her "yes, mama is so big. And how big is Gracie?"

And then she did her arms out again and said "Gracie so.... so tiny!"

Learning to dress herself

This morning when we got Grace up, we discovered she'd found one of her shirts that was next to her bed and stuck it over her head. She even had one arm through a sleeve! We were quite impressed, though sadly had to take it off to get her pajamas out from underneath.

We love you so much, Gracie!

Like Mama, Like Daughter...

When I put Grace in her baby bed tonight, she laid down with a book in each hand and wanted me to tuck her in. Last I saw of her, she was trying to prop herself up a bit to look at one of the books, and we haven't heard a peep from her since.

A Quick Catch-up

So... it seems during the times when life is changing the most, we have the least time to write about it. :-) But now that Grace is sleeping well again (and Caleb's working late), I thought I'd do a quick catch-up post.

First, and I'm pretty sure I've posted some about it, but I don't remember exactly what, we're expecting a little baby boy at the end of August. We still have no idea on names, but have a dozen or so favorites to choose from at least. :-) It's been a much, much easier pregnancy this time around, with almost no sickness or anything to remind me I'm pregnant. Except a kicking baby in my tummy. I showed Grace how she could feel the baby move yesterday and told her we'd have to "wait and see" if the baby would move. While reading books this afternoon, she several times would put her little hand on my tummy and say "wait-see".

Yep! We've moved back to Dallas, and have been here about four weeks now. And absolutely enjoying being close to family again; it's been great fun being able to have our parents over dinner for a change! And they've been awesome about offering to watch Grace so we could settle into our temp housing and do some house hunting of our own. And I'm totally loving having a washer & dryer of our own again! I think that's my #2 favorite thing about being down here, after family. Followed by having a backyard and garage (no more 400 foot walk in the rain to carry in the groceries!). Every morning Grace has to take a tour with Daddy of the backyard and clean out the bird bath and see the "purple gate" as she's dubbed it. And in the afternoons, she loves digging in the flower pots with her little spoon. We still really miss our condo at times, but it was so often rainy and muddy, we'd never yet just let her freely play in the dirt like she's been able to here.

We left all our stuff in storage up in Seattle, except what we could fit in our eight suitcases (Grace had her own seat on the plane, so we got to check two more for free! Plus lots of carry-ons). It's a lot harder than I realized not having a more permanent home, and I've been surprised how much I miss the regularity of our routines and having our own stuff, but God's been teaching me a lot through this. Yesterday I was reading the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings, and it struck me how long the Israelites waited for the fulfillment of God's promise to have a land of their own. And realizing that in reality, we are wanderers on this earth; right now our lives just happen to match that much more closely than we've been accustomed. We're really hoping God will lead us to a house soon (preferably before the baby arrives!), but if not, we'll be living in this limbo-sort-of-place another six months or so. I've realized I had very firm ideas of what having a baby is supposed to look like - painting a room, getting everything set up - and it's been hard not even knowing where we'll be living, but many, many people have delivered in much harder circumstances than living in a roomy two bedroom house with other people's furnishings. I could be on a donkey on my way through the desert! :-)

Anyways, that's a quick overview of where our lives are now, and as Caleb's done with work, we're off to enjoy some good ol' Blue Bell. :-D

Flying to Dallas!

Grace didn't sleep very well in the hotel the night before our flight - we'd gotten to bed around midnight, and she was up around 4. For about 3 hours. She was so tired by the time we got on the plane, she fell asleep before she could finish her dinner.

And ya know, I think Southwest was not only the cheapest flight we could find (and no baggage charges!), but the nicest airline we've flown in quite awhile.

Thanks again, Paula, for all those grapes! And the ride to the airport. :-) Grace absolutely loved having her favorite snack!

Last Days in Seattle, Part 4...

Last Days in Seattle, Part 3...

Last Days in Seattle...

Last Days in Seattle...