200th Post :)

Reading big brother a story.

Love the sweet smile.

She likes to be naked, can you tell? :)

Love her face here. I know I'll see that face again in the years to come.

I have this one framed cause it's so dear.

Dressed for a cold outing.

I love sleeping baby pictures.

It's even sweeter when dad's involved.

Me and my two kids.

Rubbing her eyes and getting sleepy before bedtime

Just before she sneezed

Liking her new Bumbo seat

Blah!

She can be so pitiful sometimes.

Kisses from Mommmy

Yay for kisses!

What Matthew is Like in Person

He enjoys emptying out his entire toy box. Then he proceeds to get in it, or ride on it, or climb on it, or whatever his crazy imagination comes up with.



The monkey likes to stuff his face with a banana. Probably his favorite fruit--he never refuses it when offered.

He's a great big brother. Always willing to help take care of his little sis.

A nice genuine smile for the camera. Rare.

Recently decided to like hats because Daddy wears them (this is Daddy's on his head right now). His hats are all too small, so we bought him a red Cars one that fits.

Eating his foot, or kissing his foot, some silly thing like that.

Stop! he's saying with his hands. He says this when we chase him, and then he'll say go when we can go after him again.

He will literally carry on a pretend conversation with someone on his phone, with all the right inflections too. He doesn't do it so well in this video, but you get the idea.


Walking his toy alligator, a Christmas gift I believe.


This kid is a cookie monster, asking for them at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Chunky Monkey

Esther had her 2-month appointment Monday, and this also began her first round of immunizations. She screamed of course, and Matthew was upset for her as well. But he calmed down when I pointed out her cool Band-aids, and Esther was fine once I picked her up and nursed her. The doctor said she is doing great--that's always nice to hear. And obviously she's growing well, as you can see from her stats below.

Height: 23.5 in. (90th%)
Weight: 14 lbs. 7 oz. (97th%)

I've been so tired lately that I can never think of what to say on here. I know I have stuff to tell you about the kids, but my brain can't seem to put it into words.

Matthew's been losing sleep due to his getting out to bed. It's decreased, but last night he got up in the middle of the night a few times. Fortunately he slept in til 7. His normal lately has been just before 6, and if he doesn't get a good nap, then the losing sleep cycle continues. And when he's tired like that he cries over small, silly things and throws fits easier too. All the ingredients for a fun-filled day.

Esther grabbed a toy for the first time yesterday. She likes to sit up and see what her brother's doing. She's got pretty good neck control too. She's very alert and active, but she lets us know when she's getting tired. She is the queen of short naps though. She'll sleep for like 30 or 45 minutes, and when she wakes up she's still tired and finds it even harder to go back to sleep. Ideally she should sleep about an hour and a half to her next feeding, but when she wakes up prematurely, she wants to eat even though she's not really hungry. And if I feed her she gets too full and pukes all over the place. Ah, another crazy cycle.

Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and I love being a mother, but just like anybody else in the working world, I do get tired of my job from time to time. I take my hat off to working moms, who seem to juggle motherhood and the career world effortlessly. And kudos to the dads out there who are like my husband. They work hard at a demanding job all day, come home late, and then spend time with their kids and help out the wife. They put away dinner and give baths to the kids. And then on top of that, they assist with things that happen in the middle of the night, such as a toddler getting out of bed or bouncing a fussy baby to sleep. By the way, thank you, Josh. You are a wonderful husband and hard worker--we make a good team, you and me. It's a good thing we got married :)

Ok, now for some pictures...

Goofing off under the table

"O"

Not fully awake one morning

Now you know where he gets his goofiness.

Smiles for Mommy

Girl talk

Hanging out together

A true Baptist baby--sporting denim for a church function :)

Aw, his arm is around her!

First time holding her without any help. He was a little nervous.

See? She likes to sit up. Told ya so.

Daddy always has time for us, no matter how long his work day is.

He's usually pretty excited when we specifically give him permission to touch sissy.

Shaking Mickey

Playing in the basement while I did some laundry.

I like her expression here.

Esther...

...and Matthew around the same age. I think they're related, don't you?

Monday Movies

Here's some short videos of the kids I've been meaning to put up here. The first one was taken a little bit ago, but the others are more recent.


He's recently been working on 2-word combinations. It's so neat to watch him communicate and begin forming sentences. Examples: Sit down, stand up, Ashy turn (it was Ashley's turn on the slide in the nursery), Daddy car (riding in Daddy's car), Momma car (same idea), More eat (he wanted more to eat), Dit do (thank you), etc.


By the way, the getting out of bed thing is waning already (praise the Lord). In case anyone doesn't know, I had put on Facebook how Matthew discovered he can get out of bed and turn his light on and come down the hallway. And he did this in the middle of the night. So the gate went up, but that meant we also played room police as we had to keep putting him back in bed over and over and over and over. He seems to always want a tissue when he goes to sleep. He scrunches it up in his hand and holds it, whether he needs to wipe tears or not. He also holds his plush Mickey, which is more of a conventional lovey than a tissue is.


You see how good he's getting at walking? He gets better and better everyday. The ankle braces have been helping, and he loves to wear them.

We had to buy him new shoes to accomodate the braces. For one it had to be a wide shoe, but also we went up 2 sizes.


She's definitely got the smiling down, even if we don't see it too often. Interesting fact: she's got a dimple in her left cheek, and Matthew has one in his right.

All About Esther

So Esther is 7 weeks old today, but she seems older for some reason. I say 7 weeks, and it just doesn't sound like a big number. Yet it feels as if she's been around longer than that. I guess we are sort of getting on a schedule. It's not like it's by the clock or anything, but it's more a pattern I try to follow. She's sleeping longer stretches overnight, which is wonderful. Although, sometimes she'll wake up screaming, and once we burp her she's fine and will drift back to dreamland. She's still sleeping in our room, so it's easier and quicker for me to get her. Josh will get her and change her diaper and then hand her off to me so I can feed her. It takes her about 15-20 minutes to eat, sometimes shorter. It's funny cause I feel like she's not eating enough because Matthew would nurse for 30-40 minutes, but I'm learning that every baby's different.

Sleeping in church

Even though she doesn't eat for very long, she's a total puke machine. She spits up a lot, some days worse than others. Sometimes it has to do with what I've been eating. She seems to be sensitive to my diet, like onions or spicy food. Even caffeine. Matthew didn't seem to care what I ate when I was nursing him. And he pooped almost every diaper in the beginning, but she is a different story. She's gone as long as 4 days between bowel movements.

Little chunker

Esther had a fair amount of hair when she was born, but then it started to fall out. Not all over, just in a C shape on the top of her head. But it's starting to grow back. I can't call her our little baldy anymore :).

She's definitely got the smiling thing down. And she's experimenting with getting her arms moving. It's the funniest thing, because she ends up hitting herself in the head. The startled expression on her face is priceless. I wish I could capture it on camera for you.


I don't think I have anymore to say, so here are a few thousand words :)

Brother and sister

Mom, what should I do?

The three of us

I think she was watching Daddy and Matthew play the Wii here.

Close ups of a beautiful face


And my favorite picture of her to date...

My pretty girl