Posted in baby on July 25, 2013| 1 Comment »
Evie was 7 lb 4 oz at birth and at 6 weeks she was 11 lbs 9 oz! I’m guessing she has to be well over 12 lbs now. She’s growing fast!
1 week old!
3 weeks old!
5 weeks old!
7 weeks old!
8 weeks old!
Compared to Wil at 8 weeks:
Week 8
I dressed up Evie in the same onesie and took an 8-week photo with the lion for comparison. Pictures were taken at slightly different heights, but Evie is definitely the chunkier of the two! She also enjoys the photo-shoots a bit more. I’m loving her smiles!
Posted in things we've done on July 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Here is another quick picture dump. Phil is officially furloughed every Friday until October. His first day ‘off’ started on his birthday. Unfortunately – we celebrated that day by taking both kids to their routine doctors appointments. It was a 2+ hour ordeal. It was pretty miserable. Wil hates the doctor and they both got shots. Wil even had a grown-up blood draw. Hopefully we’ll never have to go back, ever. Once that was finally over with – we headed to Chap’s Pit Beef for Phil’s birthday dinner. Its in the parking lot of a strip club, haha. I felt pretty seedy pulling in (especially with my children) – but hot damn, they make a good beef sandwich!! We came home and opened some presents and had cake. I think Wil had fun handing daddy the presents – and Phil was nice enough to let Wil blow out the candles. It was fun having the back-to-back birthday so it helped re-enforce the idea of a ‘birthday’ to Wil. Other than the doctors and birthday – we’ve just been lying low! We went to the science museum one weekend and we try to make it to the park here and there. Evie is starting to smile more and more – I can even make it happen now! Her favorite thing right now is when I blow lightly in her face. Hey – whatever works!
Posted in things we've done on July 20, 2013| 2 Comments »
**Warning – Monster post. Skim if you’d like**
I thought it would be fun to track my day to see how vastly different it is from my last ‘Routine’ post.
2:10am – Evie wakes up. Time to nurse, burp, change diaper, and put back down. We’re both back asleep by around 2:50.
4:45- Phil gets up and takes barney on a walk/run around the park, showers, makes his smoothie, and gets ready for the day.
6:00 – Evie wakes up. Phil scoops her up and does a quick diaper, then gets me up to nurse. Evie goes back down by 6:30 – I get up for the day and put on a work-out video. 5 minutes in and I’m already dying. 9 months of pregnancy killed my ab muscles. Phil leaves for work and I hop in the shower. Evie stirs around 7:15, I change and nurse her real quick. She falls back asleep, then I head downstairs to unload the dishwasher and get Wil’s breakfast ready.
7:30 – Wilek is up! We come downstairs, turn on some Mickey, do a diaper, eat some oatmeal, play with some cars, and hang out. I mess around on the computer, pump, boil/sterilize bottles for the day, and eat the rest of Wil’s oatmeal. We’re just about to turn-off the TV and pull out the trains when Evie wakes up. I turn Mickey back on. I grab Evie from upstairs – do a diaper, give a bottle, and put her in her bouncer – shes not thrilled about it.
9:00 – TV off. Wil and I color, listen to some Raffi, have a diaper change, sit on the potty, feed Barney, watch the street cleaners go by. Evie continue to fuss, so I change her and give the rest of the bottle. While I feed Evie, Wil always wants to sit right next to me. Today, he played with the lights and found a block in the couch cushions which kept him busy for awhile (score!). Overall, its a successful feeding considering there was no Mickey). I take Evie upstairs to nap.
10:00 – Wil and I get back to coloring and have a snack. He eats about 90 percent of his cantaloupe before having a major meltdown and DOES NOT want anymore. OOOOOokay? I grab some more coffee. He finally settles down and we brush our teeth. Wil climbs up on Phil’s computer and plays around. I pump again, hoping he’ll stay happy playing on the computer. For awhile hes fine, just tapping on random keys – then all of a sudden he actually gets things to start happening – a video even starts playing? I hurry up and finish. When I get over to the computer – it is asking me if I want to permanently delete a file with the word ‘set-up’ in it. Ummm, no I dont. I get Wil outta there and hes not happy about it. Another major meltdown. Im thinking he’s still hungry. So we break out the crackers and peanut butter. I start prepping the diaper bag.
10:45 – I wake a sleeping baby! Just long enough to transfer her to the car-seat. Luckily, she goes right back asleep. We do a quick Wil diaper change and we are out the door to the Library story time.
11:00 – Arrive at story time. I somehow dont think to bring a stroller. So I’m carrying Evie in the car-seat in one hand and Wil doesnt feel like walking – so I have him on the other hip. Amateur hour. Always remember the stroller! But Evie remains asleep, and Wil and I get to hang out, sing songs, and listen to stories with other kids for awhile.
11:30 – Evie wakes up hungry. I have to get her out of the car-seat and give her a bottle. Wil is okay with this for 5 minutes and keeps himself entertained by taking my shoes on and off, but then gets bored and starts to explore the room. I can watch him, but not reach him. Hes fine for a bit – then finds an upright flag pole in the corner. Before I could put Evie down and get to Wil – he, of course, topples the thing over. I’m able to alert a mother who half-catches the pole before it hits her and her 3-year-old son. It hits the little boy on the back and he starts crying. I’m mortified and apologize profusely. Within 5 minutes of the incidence I am OUTTA there! Not before checking on the little boy one more time, he seems ok, but I’m still shaking. Might not show my face there for a few weeks. Car ride home is miserable. Evie is screaming due to not finishing her bottle or being burped. Wil was not ready to leave yet. Ugh.
11:45 – We’re home. I throw on a Mickey, grab some food for Wil before finally rescuing Evie to finish the bottle.
12:03 – Evie diaper change.
12:07 – Evie diaper change.
12:15 – I’m able to get her happy right as Mickey is ending and Wil and I head upstairs for nap time. Quick diaper change for Wil. We read a story and I leave him on his floor bed for nap time. PHEW! That was an intense hour. I head back down stairs to hang out with Evie. Shes wide awake and ready to play. We practice some eye tracking, practice our squats, and look out the window and up at our AKT painting. We could hear Wil banging around upstairs for awhile – but finally seems to go to sleep by 12:30. Evie starts to tire as well and goes back to sleep by 1:00.
1:00 – All is quiet! This rarely happens. I quickly take Barney out and feed him. Clean up dishes and bottles, pump, write a few quick emails, and fold some laundry.
2:00 – UPS rings the doorbell. CHAOS ensues. Barney goes nuts, starts barking and running around, and wakes up Evie who starts crying. I get Barney in his cage, grab the package, scoop up Evie all in record time – and Wil stays asleep! I change and feed Evie and put her upstairs to finish napping before getting Wilek’s afternoon snack ready.
2:30 – I get Wil up. We come downstairs, watch a Mickey, eat our snack, change the diaper. Evie never really fell back asleep – so I grab her, change a diaper and bring her down stairs. She immediately falls asleep in the bouncer but keeps getting startled awake by Wil, so I take her back upstairs. This would be the perfect time for Wil and I to head outside to play with some chalk or bubbles, but its like 100 degrees. So we stay inside, put on some music, and break out the legos. The afternoon is pretty chill – Wil alternates between playing by himself and wanting my attention. We do another diaper in there somewhere. Sometimes I can get a few things done during this time, like preparing dinner. Luckily, I had made a dinner the day before, and it just needed to be popped in the oven. Combined with Evie’s long nap – I had a lot of down time this afternoon!
Picture from another day – but this is often how i find him, haha
5:00 – Phil is home!! Another rarity. With all this crazy government furlough business, they are tightening down on hours and making sure no one is working over the allotted time. Fine by me! Phil had put in his 8 hours and now hes home (Wish it was like this during non-furlough!!) I get the oven pre-heated and dinner ready. Phil plays with Wil and does another diaper. [This is also where I stop tracking bottle/diapers/times and stopped taking pictures…the rest is my best guess from the next morning!]
5:30 – Evie is finally up! I change her diaper and give her a bottle. Phil and Wil start dinner and we watch a little PTI while Wil plays with his toys. Then I clean up dinner while the boys head outside for a bit. I nurse and pump again. Phil and Wil are back pretty quick. Apparently Wil turned straight back toward home after only a short walk. It was hot out there! I dont blame him! I decide its time for some impromptu chocolate chip cookies. I have the recipe memorized and always have the ingredients. Its too easy! A tough pregnancy habit to break.
7:00 – Bath Time! Evie is first. She screams bloody murder and has to go first or she’ll wake up Wilek. I get her bathed, changed, and give her a bottle while Phil keeps Wil happy. She starts to nod-off. Phil heads upstairs with Wil around 7:30 for his bedtime routine. Once bath is over, I usually head upstairs and take-over for story and lullaby time, but Evie wakes up and fusses some more. Phil is in charge of lullabies tonight.
8:00 – Wil is asleep. Evie is not. I change her again and Phil tries another bottle while I try to write a few more emails. We talk about our days and my fall schedule once maternity leave is over, Evie is in and out of sleep depending on if she has her pacifier. I pump once last time and then head upstairs with Evie while Phil takes Barney out.
9:00 – I change Evie one last time and try to ‘top-her-off’ before bedtime. I think she was finally asleep by 9:30-ish. Phil and I were shortly behind her. Around 1:30 am the next day – we started all over again!
*******
So lets see: 13 diapers for Evie, 8 for Wil; 1 major meltdown for Evie, 2 or 3 for Wil; 5 pumping sessions and a few nursing sessions; only 5 episodes of Mickey (thats really good for me these days!); and 1 full hour while they were both asleep! Other than the fact that we nearly impaled a small child at the library – I would call it a successful day!
Posted in baby on July 16, 2013| 1 Comment »
So we’re starting to get into a groove around here. Evie is nearly 7 weeks old and Wil is back at daycare 2 days a week. Phil is also furloughed 1 day a week (joys of working for the government). So we are all together 3 days a week and I am only alone with both of them 2 days a week. On top of it – Evie is a pretty good sleeper….for an infant. I get a 4-5 hour stretch out of her most nights and a few 2+ hour naps throughout the day. I’m nearly a full-functioning adult!! I know I’m going to jinx myself, but I just need to say again how awesome this little girl is! Dont get me wrong, she scream bloody murder when she needs something – which is every few hours, but for the most part – she is very easy going. I’m still not sure if shes that much ‘better’ than Wil was as an infant, or if we’ve just chilled out as parents. I use the hiccups example: With Wil, if he had a bad case of the hiccups – I would have walked around the apartment for 45 minutes patting his back trying to get rid of them. But with Evie, I just sit her down and figure that she’ll work them out herself – and she does. Easy Peasy. I’m actually enjoying parenting this go around. So much less stressful.
Wil has definitely gotten a little more clingy in the past few weeks. I think hes finally realized this baby isnt going away. He is still very loving to her – but just wants more of my attention. Evie is spending more time awake and loves looking around. Shes starting to track people with her eyes across the room and smiles occasionally. She is in the 87th percentile for nearly all things and weighs in at 11 lb 9 oz! Wilek is 28 pounds and about 50th percentile. Hes getting more and more words, but is still a bit behind his peers. A lot of his toddler meltdowns seems to stem from the fact that he cant tell us what he wants. But we’re working on it. Hes starting to get more adventurous and loves to climb over and under things. We’ve had to save him a few times from various falls. One of these times, we’re not going to be able to catch him!
Posted in Uncategorized on July 14, 2013| 1 Comment »
Now that Wil is finally starting to ‘get’ certain events – I really wanted to make a big deal about my favorite holiday: the 4th of july! I was so excited for the holiday and looked up parades and fireworks and all these fun things to do….then I came down with an infection the night before. Ugh! I was so sick. But Phil was amazing and took care of the kids so I could get as much rest as possible and still have a good day. We carried on and went to the Towson, MD parade:
Did you know they cant throw candy anymore?!?! I was very upset. But Wil liked the firetrucks and music. And was pretty nervous about the motorcycle brigade. I enjoyed the bagpipes. We left before the whole things was over, but before meltdowns began – so I’ll call it a win.
That afternoon, we played in the spicket. Wil loves bath-time, but had a horrible time at the pool the last time we went. We thought playing outside in the water might be a good middle ground and we’ll work our way back up to the pool again. The neighborhood kids flocked to the water buckets and squirt guns! Freddy Jr. and siblings came by to play, along with Roshera from across the street. Its always fun talking to the neighborhood kids! Evie hung-out inside through the whole thing.
That night, Dimps gave us the key to watch the fireworks on his roof while he and Christa were out of town. I watched you-tube videos of fireworks with Wil before we left to get him excited about what was to come. We brought Barney along and made it about 10 minutes into the fireworks (which started at 9:30 pm) before all the kids started screaming. It had a been a long day and we were all tired.
Despite the long day and me being sick, I think it was a success. (?) Wil seemed to enjoy the you-tube videos more than anything that day, so sometimes I question whether all the trouble was even worth it. But hopefully we’re laying the foundation for all the holidays in the future.
Posted in baby on July 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Wil turned 2 last weekend. Instantly after Evie was born, he morphed from ‘my baby’ to a bona-fide ‘kid’. His 2nd birthday was a wonderful celebration of that. Wil still isnt a big fan of cake, so the night before I made him some m&m chocolate chip cookies. Then I took a shot glass to cut-out individual cookies to make in the shape of a 2:
Im not a very creative/crafty person, but I was happy with how it turned out. The next morning, we skyped with both of the grandparents. We tried to reinforce the idea it was his birthday early in the day – and sang him the birthday song and finally gave him one present. But I’m not sure he finally got it until the afternoon.
After his nap, we had set up his new train set and had all the balloons and presents waiting for him. We sang the birthday song again and made a big deal about the presents. We brought out his cookies and blew out some candles. I’m still not sure he really knew what was going on – but he knew he was having a GREAT day. (Video of cookies to come shortly…)
Birthday aftermath:
Phil and I never actually got Wil anything for his birthday because we had so many packages and presents from family and friends wrapped and ready to go for his big day! We sincerely thank everyone for their thoughtful gifts. Wil truly had a great, great day. Of course the best gifts were the boxes they came in and the decorations! Wil and Phil played with the mylar balloons for days after the birthday!! Wil especially liked ‘throwing’ them up to the ceiling and having daddy lift him up to get them:
Thanks again to everyone who made Wilek’s 2nd birthday a special one!
Posted in things we've done on July 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I would drive 1500 miles and I would drive 1500 more, just to see my little brother get married. (Benny and Joon anyone?) Seriously wouldnt have missed it for the world. If I have any more kids, it’s because of pictures like this:
Siblings are the best, arent they?!
We drove through the night Thursday and arrived Friday morning. As horrible as 14 hours in the car with 2 kids is, my sister had it worse being stuck on a plane with 2 little ones as she got re-routed from chicago to st. louis amid a storm. We finally all arrived at the rehearsal dinner Friday night. As always, I was terrible about taking pictures, so most of these are swiped from facebook. The wedding was absolutely stunning!! My sister-in-law was freaking gorgeous and all the details of the wedding were flawless. Check out that veil:
Her grandmother made that thing! Unbelievable! We had a blast hanging out with all the family. Busia and Dziadzia were there for the occasion and helped out with the kiddos. Along with Uncle Nick who got to meet Evie for the first time. The only photo we have of the weekend was Wil looking dapper at the rehearsal dinner:
On Sunday after the brunch, we were able to meet up with some of Phil’s chicago friends who we hadnt seen in nearly 3 years! Of course, I dont have pictures of the friends themselves. But we do have a few of Wil and his newest friend (betrothed) Alyssa:
I unfortunately didnt catch any of Evie’s betrothed, Eli, but it was great getting to meet all these new little ones. Thanks to Jared, Karen, and Jon for meeting up with us – we really miss you guys. After we hung out on Sunday afternoon, we made the long drive home and made it back by early Monday. All in all, it was a fabulous weekend. Congrats to Andrew and Jessie – such a wonderful celebration of all good things to come. Welcome to the fam!
Woznation 