Cute Sleeper

Isn't she the most adorable baby you've ever seen? She sleeps all curled up in this position a lot. How do I know? Well.....she has ended up in bed with me on more than one occasion. As it turns out, I really don't think that co-sleeping is a great idea for our family in theory. However, it turns out that in practice sometimes co-sleeping is what happens at our house. Theory or not.

Every time I think the jaudice is starting to clear up I see a picture like this one. Definately still has a yellow cast to her face!

Ack! John Goes Back to work....

In addition to Amelia being 2 weeks old, John also returned back to work today. Somehow it feels like he was home for a longer period of time when William was born. Or maybe those first two weeks when William didn't sleep were just an eternity long. Hard to say. But, I was very nervous about being up against our two angels by myself today.


In the end, the day was easier than I had expected. It wasn't exactly an easy picnic either - I changed 1321897238 diapers by the time John arrived home. I also had spent precisely 5.5 hours feeding one child or another and exactly 12 minutes feeding myself. But, things were manageable. Especially because Amelia slept from 12:30am - 7:45am again!

It also helped that we had a visit from some very special people today: Jeff, Liz and Laura. Today was a school holiday and so they spent part of their day off hanging out with us. They came to play and brought me lunch. They even held the baby while I ate my lunch! It was amazing and really made the day fly by!

Uncle Jeff with Amelia
Liz with Amelia

Funny William story: We were all sitting around after lunch and Liz was holding Amelia. William was having trouble remembering everyone's name. So, he said "Grandma holding baby". Of course, everyone laughed and Liz (who does not have grandchildren) laughed as well. Lucky for William he is cute. For some reason then, he looked at Jeff and said "Grandpa! Grandpa play with William!" Everyone laughed again, although it wasn't quite as funny because Jeff is kind of an antiGrandpa (because he is young and hip, not because he doesn't like Grandpas). Then Laura*, had to ask "What is my name?" He looked at her long and hard before declaring "GRANDMA!" Which is sad because Laura is about 6 months older than me. So, I have about 6 months before I am officially Grandma age according to my son.



*Laura isn't a fan of newborns, so she declines to hold any of my children until they are at least 3 months old. So, I didn't leave her out - she just opted out.

Two Weeks Old!

Amelia was two weeks old on April 13th! She is really a very sweet, easy going kind of baby so far. I'm a little afraid to write this because maybe she'll read it and change her mind....

Anyway, I took several hundred beautiful pictures of Amelia today before I realized that there wasn't a card in our camera. And then I had to start over. At 8pm. And there wasn't any light. Grrrrrrr....

Easter!

We have a lot to celebrate this Easter! Just shy of two weeks old, Amelia decided this was a good day to sleep all night. She slept from about 11pm until 7:30am! I wouldn't expect this to continue, but I will tell you it felt GREAT!

Pumped up with sleep, we got up and hustled around to make it to our church's pancake breakfast to support our youth group. We didn't take any pictures because this was one of our first trips out with all of us and really....we ate pancakes and people ooohhhed over Amelia.

Before we left for church, I wanted a picture of the kids together in their Easter outfits. Unfortunately, William "doesn't like pictures" and this is the best we could do.
Luckily Ms Amelia didn't mind sitting for her picture!

Amelia all dressed up in her Easter Dress! AKA going home from the hospital dress!

When we got home, we found out the Easter Bunny had paid a visit to our house!

All the Easter Bunny treats were in our new basement (to help us get out the door on time the Bunny left the treats downstairs so we wouldn't get distracted).
The baskets!
William inspecting his trucks/diggers Easter basket.
William helping Amelia look at her Easter Basket

Mama and her kiddos...we weren't patient enough to attempt the whole family shot with the tripod/timer, etc.
Another picture of the three of us
William inspecting his Easter treats
Trying out some of his Easter candy...
Which one should I eat next? Or: Do I really have to unwrap these?
What?
Amelia's first Easter (with her first Easter Bunny)
William also had his picture taken with this bunny

Because I am evil, I also like to take pictures with the bunny ears...

Amelia also took a turn

Still worked up

William eating some "cannies"

After naptime, Amelia was having some tummy time. William decided he needed some tummy time also and got down on the blanket with her. He is very disturbed she can't roll over by herself and keeps trying to "help" her along. Like she isn't trying hard enough.

She also cannot pick up her head like this....
Copying her exactly. He is a very funny boy!

Stubborn? Big Boy?

William is probably an average 2 year old boy. He is forever exploring physically and verbally with a tireless energy that wears us out. He is also testing his boundaries constantly. I'm not sure if it the heavy load of developmental psychology that I took or my regular does of "Patience Potion", but the majority of the time I find his antics hilarious.

On Saturday (4/11), he was crabbing about something I was asking him to do. Like sit down so we could read the book he had picked out or lay down so I could change his poopy diaper. Something terribly difficult along those lines. When the crabbing started turning into all out tantrum, I told William to come and give me a hug. My thinking was maybe he hasn't been getting enough attention around here lately and maybe he needed a little love.

With a very serious face, William replied "I don't like hugs."

I almost laughed out loud! It was too funny! Because I know that he does like hugs and he loves me...and it is a very two year old thing to say. Since then, we've heard the "I don't like...." about 219382673687369284298 times a day about everything under the sun. He doesn't like eating or riding in his car seat. He doesn't like wearing shoes or not wearing shoes. He doesn't like baths or bedtime or waking up time. There really isn't much he likes - really, everyone should feel pretty sorry for him. It is a rough life being 2.


Anyway. On Saturday, April 11th (or so my photo files tell me), William decided It Was Time. Nevermind we had other plans or other Things to Do. It Was Time for him to learn to put on his shoes by himself. And it wasn't pretty. This boy is stubborn (gee...where do you think he got that?).

These are the only shoes he can actually get on by himself becasue the foot hole is huge and there is only 1 velcro strap for him to unfasten (and keep track of). Note: wrong feet, proud face.

Very determinded little boy. Lots of tears were shed and several tantrums over this issue. It just isn't fair that he couldn't do it himself! For the record, I have nothing against him putting on his own shoes. In fact, HURRAY! Put on you own shoes so I don't have to bend over and do it. But, the fact is, he just CANNOT quite do it himself and is VERY unhappy about this. He would keep trying and trying and trying and trying and trying and trying and trying and was just so very frustrated with himself and us.

At the end of the day, I confess I put his shoes out of reach/sight for awhile. Although I find his behavior enertaining as well as endearing, there isn't any reason why we need to live through that again on so few hours of sleep. We'll save that one for another day when the sleep is more and therefore patience is more plentiful!

Kids Playing Together

Hopefully this is what our future holds a lot of:

Our two kids playing together. Nicely, of course!

We've been pulling out our stash of baby toys and it appears that William does not remember any of the in the least. All of them are fresh and brand new to him...which means he isn't anxious to share them with his little baby sister.

Luckily, she doesn't care very much right now, so we have some time to work on that. As you can see here, he is trying to show her the ropes and she isn't even looking the right direction.

Daddy's Helper!

Last week, a package was delivered. After the driver rang the doorbell, we kept hearing this odd buzzing noise. It took us awhile to figure out that the doorbell was still ringing...or rather making a low buzzing noise. John got a chair to take a better look at the problem when everyone's favorite helper wanted in on the action...


It is great to have such a willing helper around our house!