20 Months and 3 Weeks

As my children sleep, one in my arms and one beside me, I marvel at their tenderness, their innocence and their beauty (inside and out). It still seems a bit unreal to me that I am now a mother of two children. Two. The transition from one to two has definitely had its challenges these past three weeks. (I cannot believe my baby girl is three weeks old today already.) But, it's also been filled with so much glee and excitement and love and happiness and awe. Life truly has been good and I am grateful.

Today marks three weeks that sweet Adelaide has been a part of our family. These three weeks have been incredible. It has been amazing to see how Caleb is learning to interact with her. He cracks me up.  He has tried to smother her with clothing, blankets and even diapers. He's hit her in the head with a whisk and has tried to hit her in the head with other things like shoes. He bit her in the head once, pinched her cheeks, arms and legs. (He always starts by giving gentle touches and then before I know it, there's a pinch!). But he's also been so affectionate with her. He loves to just watch her and it's precious. He likes to hold her for a few minutes before trying to push her away. If she starts to cry, he says, "Mama, Adelay, Adelay". He'll sometimes try to give her a pacifier or hug her and kiss her. He's even tried picking her up before. If he's eating a snack, sometimes he wants to share with her and I have to remind him that "Adelaide can't eat that yet, but how thoughtful of you to share!". Sometimes, Adelaide will be sleeping in her little seat and Caleb will come and shake the seat and scream to her. I say "to her" and not "at her" because I don't think he's actually trying to scream at her. Other times, he will "sing" loudly while stomping around and dancing around her seat. It's so hard not to laugh sometimes. He loves his sister. And she loves him.

Yesterday, Adelaide and I went to church for the first hour (Sacrament meeting) for the first time. I decided not to stay for the entire meetings because I didn't want to expose Adelaide to all of those germs yet. We sat in the very back of the chapel (well, actually, they had to open up the back, so technically, we weren't even in the chapel. It was nice to be able to get to church after a couple of weeks. Adelaide did really well for the most part. She only got fussy at the very end and that's because I moved her. She's a bit persnickety when it comes to movement sometimes. Anyway, so we stepped out for the very end. Right afterwards, some ward members came and said hi and a few people commented on how alert she is. She is alert and she has to be because she's got a very active big brother. :)

So here are some details of Adelaide's short little life. Her first week, she was perfect. She slept, ate, loved to be held, but didn't have to be held all of the time. Around the beginning of the second week, she decided that she wanted to be held at all times, making things a bit difficult when needing to do things around the house or more importantly when needing to play with/ take care of Caleb. (Who can blame her, she just spent 9 months inside my warm, cozy belly?) Now don't get me wrong... when Caleb was as young as she is, I pretty much held him all of the time and I loved it. And, I love holding Adelaide, but there are definitely times that I would need to put her down and it's been a bit challenging. I find myself not using the restroom when I need to or eating as often as I should (or just eating junk, which is bad). So I'm trying to learn to find that balance. I do love holding her and don't mind otherwise. :) The past couple of days she's been kind of fussy, so that's also been a bit challenging to try and figure what it is that's making her fussy and I've had to give her more attention, which means that I have to take more attention away from Caleb. He's had a little bit of a difficult time dealing with that. This week's a new week though and she's doing pretty well, sleeping without me holding her. :) (Which by the way, is actually one of my most favorite things, holding my sleeping babies- I just can't do it all of the time).

She lost her umbilical cord at 2 weeks and 1 day (in the middle of the night).

At her 2 week appt. (2 weeks and 2 days), she weighed in at 8lbs. 13 oz. and was 21 1/2 inches long. She's growing awesomely!

I got to carry her in a wrap and she loves it and I love it. Win-win. :)

She's an excellent eater. I've never had to worry about waking her to eat- she wakes up all on her own and eats great. Such a blessing.

She has the best smiles in the world. She also has the best serious faces.

She loves music just like her big brother and loves when I sing to her. It's so cool because I just know that she remembers/recognizes the songs that I sang to Caleb all of the time while she was still in my womb.

She loves to be held upright, under her armpits and bounced.

She loves to be held upright on my chest.

She also loves to sleep in the crook of my arm, on her belly.

She has an awesome set of lungs! I think we'll have another singer in our family! :)

She is the sweetest little baby. Such a sweet, tender soul. We all just love her to pieces.

Today also marks Caleb's 20 months and boy has he just grown in the last month. Since this post is already long enough, I'll try to be brief.

* Caleb has learned a TON of new words... some may not be understanble by unfamiliar people. But when you do understand what he's saying and you repeat back to him what you think it is, he gets this huge grin on his face and says in the cutest tone ever what it was that he wanted. So cute. I really need to try and get it on video.

Here's a list of his new words this month (these are all words that he'll say by himself):
-Most importantly- Mama... it only took him 19 months, but he finally calls me Mama!! :)
- cookie (tuhtee)
- hot
- wagon (wahon)
- baby (sometimes baby and sometimes beebee)
-Adelaide (Adelay)
-banana (nana)
- star
- moon (noong)
- thank you (taintu- usually when giving something to you, but also he'll say it when you give him something, with or without a reminder.
-up (he kind of whispers it, but really emphasizes the "p")
- help (sounds just like up, so you have to note the context)
-see? (he says this about everything!)
- wet
-diaper (dybideh)
- down (dunnn)
-yucky (utty)
-Eat (very emphasized)
-hungry (eedee)
-oatmeal (oatmen)
-applesauce (appatah)
-balloon (bdoon)
- happy
- water (ahwah)

It's so exciting to see him learning so much. He does still have some difficulties with pronunciation/articulation and he has a really hard time with the "mm" sound still for most words.

*He loves to repeat things, so we play games where I'll make up sounds with multiple syllable and he'll repeat or he'll make up sounds and I'll repeat him. We'll also change the tone/pitch.

*He is nearly a pro-climber now and can climb onto our kitchen chairs and table and most other things without much difficult.

*He's had a bit of a sleep regression since Adelaide's been born (and he had just gotten so much better right before she came). He wakes up several times a night again, but usually will go right back to sleep once in our bed (or the couch with me).

*He's starting to get a little pickier about what he eats lately. But will still try most everything. In fact, right before Adelaide was born, he had his first taste of Indian food (and some of it was even a bit spicy) and he enjoyed it.

*He loves to drive around his trains making a "vroom vroom" noise.

*Loves to sit and read his books. He will point to things and say, "See?" or sometimes label things- mostly just balls (and circles and "O's" as balls. He will also "read" in gibberish which is uber adorable.

*He will put his dishes in the sink sometimes without asking.

*He loves to help and gets sooo proud of himself for helping me when I ask. It's wonderful. (Who knew that throwing a diaper away could be so thrilling and fulfilling?)

*He's really starting to enjoy nursery at church more.

*He likes to point to letters and repeat the name of them.

*He's easily frustrated when he can't figure something out, but since he's learned how to ask for help, he will and if you tell him he can do it or to try again, he can usually figure out a lot on his own and then he's super happy that he did.

* He likes to hide, especially when it's time to change his diaper, clean his face or get dressed. Some of his hiding places are actually good- meaning that he is actually hidden. Other times, he will hide in completely conspicuous spots, but lay his head down and not look at you or look in the other direction. (i.e., one of his hiding spots is on the rug in the kitchen in front of the sink. He'll lay down, bum in the air, looking in the opposite direction and think he's hidden). In either situation though, his breaths are heavy and slow. It's sooo funny!!

* He is the best fake crier, complete with eyes reddened and wet.  In fact, there have been several instances where I think he's crying for real, but as soon as I look at him, he stops and sometimes even smiles. Another thing I need to get a video of.

My baby girl- her first day home. 

What is it about toddlers and their noses?

I just love her little hands. 

Caleb has really taken to playing in the blanket bench. 

Look at her hold her head up! 10 days old. 

Circus with Daddy last Saturday.

I know it's blurry, but I am in love with that cheesy grin!

This kid!

Oh the love!

2 weeks 4 days old.

I just love how they are staring at each other.

At daddy's basketball game on Saturday. Adelaide was there, too... but she was sleeping . 

And here are some photos from today- Caleb 20 months, Adelaide 3 weeks.

So, he wouldn't look up at the camera- he was too interested in his stacking toy, so I had to bribe him with chocolate. Yes, I'm that kind of mom sometimes. :)

Adelaide is looking up at her brother. 

Sometimes we cry. :(

My neighbor made this blanket for Adelaide. How sweet is that? I love it. :)

And just for comparison, here is Caleb at 3 weeks. 

I guess that's about all. It's been an awesome month so far and I'm sure we'll have many, many more. :) This kid seriously cracks me up! He is so funny, witty (he gets that from his dad) and smart. I truly feel so blessed to have him and Adelaide in my life (along with Jeff, of course).