Baby Baby

We are slowly settling into routine with two kiddos. The hardest part we are finding is that Brian and I were so used to "tag-team" type parenting with Ellie which allowed one of us to have a break or rest or get extra sleep, etc. Now, there are no breaks since each of us usually has a kid in our arms to attend to. Maggie is at the stage now where all she wants to do is be held most of the day. I remember this time with Ellie and I'm so glad I held her as much as I did since these days it's hard to hold her in your arms more than a minute or so before she's ready to be down and doing her thing. While this time will be over before I can blink, I must say that in the midst of it all it is a bit tiresome. I've become reacquainted with doing things again with one hand and am again using my collection of baby carriers to allow myself some free hands.


Ellie is doing great and has eagerly accepted the role of big sister. She LOVES baby Maggie and wants to kiss her and hold her all the time. When I pick her up at school now and have Maggie with me, she runs over to us, totally ignoring me, and sticks her face straight into Maggie's car seat to give her a kiss and tell her hello. She is quick to find a paci when Maggie cries and tries to force it into her mouth while telling her "don't cry Maggie!"

One of the funniest things that Ellie is doing during this adjustment is that she asks to do many things that baby Maggie is doing. It's classic, but still fun to see! I've been giving Maggie sponge baths on a towel in the bathroom and one Saturday Ellie was there to watch and after I was finished, she wanted me to take off her clothes and give her a bath too. She had to lay on the towel and I had to use the bowl and washcloth just like I did for Maggie. Tonight we gave Maggie her first ever bathtub bath and I asked Ellie to help. I knew Ellie would want to get in the big tub too so I filled it up along with Maggie's tub. Ellie helped Mommy and kept telling Maggie "good job" for not crying. Once I handed Maggie over to Daddy, Ellie laid down in Maggie's tub and insisted that I give her a bath just like Maggie! Adorable! Other then that, she often takes one of Maggie's paci's and pops it in her mouth-note this is the child who almost never used a paci in the first place-she looks so funny with it in her mouth! Another thing Ellie has asked to do a few times is to breastfeed. I was prepared for this as really she only weaned 3-4 months ago herself. So the last two times she has asked, she has laid across my lap on the boppy pillow and I've let her try to nurse. The funny thing is that she really doesn't remember how to nurse anymore but she tries anyway. Apparently, she no longer cares for the taste of mommy milk and has emphatically shared that "booby milk is yucky!"

All in all we are sleepy but very happy and blessed by our two girls. Enjoy this last picture-it's cute even if we look a little rough around the edges!

Big Sister Ellie!

On Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 3:44 pm, Ellie became a big sister to Margaret Amelia. Maggie weighed 7lbs, 4 oz and was 21 inches long (although her pediatrician disagrees with these stats!) Maggie looks somewhat like her big sister but mostly just looks like Maggie right now. She has dark hair and her eyes have blue in them so we might have a blue-eyed girl! Ellie's eyes were very dark from the beginning and have stayed that way. So far, Maggie is a very easy baby. She's so easy in fact that she worries me a bit because she has slept most the night a few nights without waking me to eat and that is not normal for a breast-fed baby! Ellie seems to be taking it all in stride much like Brian and suspected. She is very curious about Maggie and likes to poke her in the eye and kiss her and always wants to know where baby Maggie is. Ellie is fighting a yucky virus this week which has been hard as we are trying to keep her from being "too close" to Maggie but are trying to encourage her to do as much with her as she wants. We hope Maggie stays strong and can avoid this bug exposure!!

It's been forever since I've updated this and I feel bad about it. I hope to do better but as I have never had two babies before I am not sure I'll still be able to keep up with it. I figure I can at least post some photos if nothing else-that doesn't take too long!

Ellie is now 21 months old and is just as delightful as ever. Brian and I just can't imagine her getting any cuter. She has been talking forever it seems and now speaks in at least 4 word sentences. She just recently started using the word "I" instead of Ellie when referring to herself which sounds so grown-up! It used to be "Ellie wants a piece of candy" and now it's "I want a piece of candy." Speaking of candy, she has become quite the candy fiend lately and it's often the first thing she asks for in the morning upon waking. I think we will blame this one on her Nana who always seems to have candy floating around in her purse! She now comes and asks us for candy, "Just one candy" she will say with her one finger up by her cheek and really emphasizing the word "ONE"-how can anyone resist that???!! Despite this interest in candy she still remains our little peanut and weighs 21 1/2 lbs right now. I'm not sure how tall she is but I do know she has grown as many clothes that would still fit her everywhere else are too short for her. Where she got the skinny genes we don't know!!

Ellie's other big news right now is that she is has taken quite an interest in using the potty! She is now in the class at school that introduces and eventually helps the kids become potty trained. They don't move up to the next class until they are potty-trained so the kids stay in this class the longest. It is divided up into two groups, one for the younger and the other for the older ones. Ellie and her friends are the newest members of this class and one thing they start having them do early on is they sit on the potty and try when they go for a diaper change. Brian and I are so grateful for this and figured we would be ready to work with her this summer on becoming fully trained. Ellie has had other ideas, she has started asking us to use the potty or telling us that she has to poopy before she goes. She also has become quite obsessed with a book we have about using the potty so we decided to humor her and bought her a tiny pink beginner Bjorn potty (the regular size one was too big for her little behind!) She LOVES this pink potty and carries it around the house to wherever we are hanging out and will ask us to take off her clothes (which means EVERYTHING, you can't even sit with socks on apparently!) So far she has pooped and peed in the potty for us once. Brian and I were so excited and cheered her on but both times she was scared and close to tears-she doesn't seem to like the "yucky stuff in her potty" and want me clean it right away. So, she's by no means close to being potty-trained right now and while we are not encouraging her too much right now we do listen to her and let her sit whenever she tells us she needs to. She may just potty-train herself despite her parents' efforts!

Well, Miss Maggie has let me know that she would like to have a little lunch so I will post this and be happy for the time being. Let me know if you have anything you want to see picture wise on here or news you would like to hear about.