A Schedule?

As soon as I think I am getting into a rhythm with Amelia, she changes things up on me, but we've been pretty stable the last couple of days and it is turning into a sustainable schedule for Mom!

• Between 4 & 5 am: Nurse Amelia
• 7 - up and at 'em! Wake up and nurse and get Miles ready and out of the house for daycare
• 8:30 - 10: Amelia and I nap
• 10 -11: Nurse and play
• 11 - 12:30: Errands, Amelia cat naps while we're out
• 12:30 - 1:30: Nurse and play
• 1:30 - 3: Amelia naps and I deal around the house (tidy, cook, what not)
• 3 - 4:30: Nurse and play
• 4:30 - 5:30: Amelia naps and I cook dinner, Tim picks up Miles from daycare
• 5:30: Nurse
• 6:00: Dinner for Tim, Miles and me while Amelia sits in her chair and watches
• 6:30 - 7: Miles bath and bedtime
• 7:30 - 8: Amelia bath and bedtime including nursing
• 10: Dream feed Amelia and bedtime!!!

Amelia does wake up a couple times during the night and I'll put the pacifier back in her mouth and maybe tuck her in a bit. I am looking forward to her sleeping more soundly and not needing am early feeding, but at this point, we are out of the super difficult phase.... until her next growth spurt which happens in 2 weeks!

Strong Girl

We've noticed that Amelia is really starting to flex her stomach on her way to sitting. While I know we are months away from her actually sitting, I did a little exercise with her to help her work her muscles. I was lightly pulling on her arms to get her to a sitting position when all of a sudden she stood up - it completely surprised me, and we captured it on film for everyone. It's amazing how quickly she is progressing!

Great weekend

We seem to be getting into the swing of having 2 kids. Mostly we do things for Miles and Amelia tags along (sorry kiddo!), but we're also mastering how to handle meals, mornings, evenings, etc when everyone seems to demanding something!

Saturday morning was the Burlingame Mother's Club spring fling, which meant a tiny petting zoo at the local park, and a crowd to shake a stick at. Miles was a little intimidated by the crowds, but played his little heart out anyway.


On Sunday, we went down to Happy Hollow in San Jose - which is probably the happiest place within 50 miles of us. It is a park absolutely geared towards kids Miles' age and about 2-3 years older. There were lots of rides that Miles loved, a puppet theater, a petting zoo, a little zoo, and about the best play structures you have ever seen. We spent 3 hours down there and still didn't explore everything. Needless to say, the nap went out the window, but it was a wonderful day and we can't wait to go back.

8 weeks with Amelia

Welp - it took us longer than we'd like to get these posted, but we finally got to it. Truth be told, Daddy's been the bottle neck. :(


She's getting big fast. It certainly feels like its going faster. She's already grown out of some of her clothes. That feels so strange to say. She's our little button - how could she be growing out of anything this soon?

New Look

More than 2 years ago we changed our blog to be blue to signify the fact that our first born was going to be a boy. Having had a little lady in our lives for quite some time, we decided to update our look. Hope you enjoy! (And it's always good to get a new look every so often!)

ZONKED!!

Miles woke up tired and cranky after cutting his nap short today. Instead of getting him up, Tim lay on the floor with him on his dog and the two of them cuddled. Apparently Miles treated Tim just like his Bubby, rubbing his neck to make sure he was still there, and generally just loving his dad. It did the trick. Within minutes, Miles was sacked out again and took another 45 minute nap. I think he woke up a little alarmed to be alone and on the floor.

We couldn't resist capturing the moment on film. We opted for video so as not to wake him up with the sound of the cameras shutter.

Chatty Cathy

Our little girl gets more and more chatty every day. Just tonight at dinner, she was in her rocking chair on the floor while the rest of us ate at the table. She sat there, just staring at me and cooing the entire time. Every time she got my attention, she'd give me a sly grin. She is really figuring out how using her voice can get attention - and it doesn't need to be a cry!

Tummy Time

Starting at the 1 month visit, we've been doing tummy time with Amelia periodically. We're supposed to do it every day (oops). Nonetheless, she is very strong and her improvement raising her head has been great.

Spa Girl

All hell can be breaking loose during Amelia's witching hour, but nothing pleases her more than a hot tub. She literally can be screaming her head off, and if you drop her into a warm bath, she calms straight down and engages with you. Before it was just a quieting, then it turned into the occasional smile, but now she loves the full on conversation in the tub. It's wonderful to start to learn how to calm her down, make her happy, and have her respond so favorably!!!

(Complete with baby acne caused by the pacifier!)

Our top chef!!

At the birthday party, Miles openly took to the play kitchen that Elie had in the corner. He probably spent more time at the kitchenette than any other toy, including the bouncy house, at the party. It's wonderful to see his little imagination coming together as he plays with toast, plastic pancakes, and a miniature microwave!!

2 years later

Today we celebrated the last of Miles' play-friends 2nd birthdays. The kids all ran around and ignored each other, but it was a wonderful time to see all our healthy little people running around. 3 of us have all had our second children already (one had twins!) and the 4th is due with her second in September. It's amazing that I met these women over 2 years ago when we were all pregnant. How time flies!!!

Early Saturday Mornings

Sometimes it takes a while for all of us to wake up, but I love the time with the children. Miles loves to snuggle first thing in the morning - what a sweet little man! And Amelia is always happiest first thing, before she goes down for her first nap. Life is exhausting but wonderful.

Out of order Easter Post

Easter came in abundance this year! On Saturday morning, Mamma and Pop-pop came to town and we took Miles and Amelia to the Burlingame Easter Egg Hunt and pancake breakfast. Tons of kids were around and were serenaded by the Lions Club band. The Easter Bunny was there and freaked out Miles a bit. Miles did great in the Egg Hunt, and Tim even took the opportunity to teach him to share with other little kids. Miles happily took out eggs from his basket and gave them to others... I guess the greed will come next year!


After Miles woke up from his nap, Mamma had helped the Easter Bunny with a hunt in the back yard. Miles had 66 eggs to find, so many he began to be choosy - he avoided eggs that didn't rattle when he shook them and eggs that were in the dirt. I think he loved the game, especially putting all his quarters from the eggs into the piggy bank that Uncle Pito and Aunt Melissa gave him for his baptism.


On Sunday morning, we followed Mamma and Pop-pop down to Kevin and Jeannie's for another Easter egg hunt and a visit with the cousins. Like always, Miles LOVED hanging out with "Tylie and Tody". It really is wonderful to have them around.


After Miles woke up from his nap there, we traveled up to Menlo Park to Aunt Patsy's house to see all the Fish cousins. Miles got into a great game with Jack, Ryan and a bellows. He followed Margo around and she played piano with him. Miles was transfixed with the musical instruments ("Miles turn tar" = "Miles turn to play the guitar") while the cousins were transfixed with Amelia who was well behaved the entire day.

when we got home, we were so pleased with our sweet and wonderful children, that we had a small photo shoot. I didn't think I would enjoy Amelia in dresses, but she looked so stinkin' cute that she may be wearing them as long as I have control over her wardrobe!

New Haircut

Up in Reno, Mamma and I took Miles in for a long overdue haircut. Our little boy was starting to look like a member of the Beatles. In a moment of chaos, Amelia crying and nursing, the woman asked if she could use the clippers by his ears. For his last several cuts, they have always used the clippers to clean up things around the ears so I immediately agreed. Within in second, she had the big shears out and Miles was on his way to his military haircut. Both Mamma and I gasped, but then decided we just had to roll with it. Miles basically got his summer cut in March. While his little Marine-do is growing on me, I think I'll keep his hair on the longer side from now on!!

A little discipline

While Miles is wonderful towards his sister, he is starting to act up a bit more. We try and give him a little leeway, we have a 0 tolerance policy for hitting. He has started a new routine of getting irritated anytime either Tim or I need to do something for Amelia - we get a stern "Mommy NO" for anything not directed towards him.

Case in point... yesterday morning after I fed Amelia, Tim took her to change her diaper and I snuggled with Miles on the couch to watch a quick show before it was off to daycare. I sat down next to Miles and still had the burp cloth on my shoulder. Miles hollered "Mommy, NO", took the burp cloth off my shoulder and threw it on the ground.

We don't begrudge him any of this as we have heard that toddlers get a little irritated when they realize the new baby isn't going away, and we are incredibly grateful that he hasn't taken any of his anger out on Amelia.

Bouncy Bridge

A couple of weekends ago, we went to the park in San Mateo with the bouncy bridge. It was one of Miles' favorite features of the park, and he and his father spent some good time going back and forth and back again.

Look what they did to my boy...

Miles got his first bite at daycare on Wednesday from a little girl. While Miles didn't seem too worse for the wear, both Tim and I were pretty sad. We know it is something that happens to all kids, but thinking about what he must have thought when his little friend came out of no where and bit him, just makes us sad. But all is good in the world, Miles announced the next day that he and Natalie are still friends, so I guess we have to get over it, too!

Our Model Boy

While Mommy and Amelia shopped last weekend at Old Navy, Tim set Miles up to become the new face of the brand... I think he might have some competition with the girl in pink, but he has a shot!

HEH?!?!?

This is a quick video from Miles at bedtime. As you can see, he has picked up this very distinct "HEH?!?" question that he uses both to ask "what? I can't hear you." and "what? I don't know what those words are." Either way, it is not a very attractive sound or habit and we are looking to teach him out of it. But when we were up in Reno last week, I noticed that both Tim and his father do the same thing, so it might be hard to teach out 3 generations of patterns...

2 Months Old!

Little Amelia turned 2 months old yesterday! She is still a pretty easy lady, with only a couple of bad hours a day. Her social smiling is in full form and she coos at us and carries on regular conversations.

Life with her is pretty good, but as soon as we form a schedule that lasts 3 days, she changes it on us - oh well, I guess parenthood teaches you nothing if not flexibility and patience! She is still sleeping well through the night (mostly), but the last 3 nights we have been up for 2 feedings. It's amazing how hard that is when I just got used to 1.... but a whole lot easier than when it was 3 & 4!!

Like her brother, Amelia is a big spitter and we go through burp clothes like it was a competition. Oh well, we know she is getting her milk and that nursing is going well. She is also very gassy and just this week she has gone from infant style farts to what might as well be coming from Tim to be heard across the room. ;)

Little Drummer Boy

Miles learned the great lesson of using chop sticks as drum sticks... I think we have a little rocker on our hands!