A few of my favorite things

Ryan and I have discussed this a number of times, of how to describe the way that Addie seems 'easy' to us as a newborn. It's not like she doesn't come with her own challenges. But she just is so predictable. If she cries, it's because she truly is hungry or tired or needs a diaper change. She really doesn't fuss much for anything unpredictable.
Her tiny hands, tiny toes, tiny features. I just want to soak all that baby-girl-sweetness in.
And the outfits? Gosh, I'm a sucker. This one has been my most recent favorite.
I find myself dressing her in it a couple times a week. When I take it out of the laundry basket to hang back up in the closet, I can't resist. It's just TOO CUTE not to put back on her!

Buddy Boys

Dylan and his buddies enjoyed the summer weather at the Huntington Gardens. They ran through the big lawn sprinklers, barefoot and giggling with delight.
Here he is with some of his best buds, Nolan and Rocco, sharing some fruit snacks. Does life get any better than this?

Cry Baby

When Addie cries, Dylan invariably either says "baby needs you, mama" or tries to help soothe her himself either with a pacifier or a snuggle.
And when he snuggles her, it truly warms my heart.

Update: 2 Months

Addie had her 2 month checkup and shots today. First the stats:
Weight 8#, 6oz (5th percentile)
Height 22.25" (50th percentile)
Head circumference 37cm (5th percentile)

What does that all mean? Well, her weight is on the low end, especially since she's moving down from the curve she was following in previous visits.
The pediatrician suggested supplementing a little and see how that goes. We have a scale thankfully here at home, so we can monitor her progress and make adjustments as needed. The usual trend is to see about a 1/2 to a full ounce of weight gain a day for her age. So I'm going to shoot for that, if possible.

And the doctor mentioned slight concern for Addie's high tone, which she described as at the upper end of normal. So we need to keep an eye on that in the next few months. As an OT, of course now my radar is on high alert. Not good for the 'ol anxiety, to be honest. But I'm going to try to trust Ryan's gut instinct that she's fine, just on the 'high end of NORMAL' like he keeps reminding me.

Also, the doc took a quick peek at Dylan's scar on his nose and said it looks like it's healing nicely. So maybe that vitamin E did some good, eh?

We've been getting a few more smiles each day now from little Addie. I think we've seen a handful of them by now and Ryan and I still beam like we just won the lottery when we catch one. She's a sweetie, for certain.
But after those shots, I doubt we'll be getting too many more of those smiles tonight... Poor bug.

Silly Dilly

At Karissa's house last week. He sported a dinosaur mask for most of the afternoon. Then he found the rain boots and added them to the ensemble. And finally, I added the fire hat at the last minute to cover what would have made this post a shade beyond our usual PG-rating.

Airplanes! (Part 2)

This weekend Dylan and his daddy worked on another airplane project.
Ryan had a few moments of frustration when Dylan decided he HAD to fly his newly-assembled airplane around before the glue had dried. More than once, I felt obliged to kindly remind Ryan that the DOING of the project was more important than the RESULT.
The painting portion of the project went much better. However Dylan got so excited about each new color of paint that the airplane changed colors about 3 times. First it was black, then purple and white, then blue.
Again, it's all about having fun in the DOING. Right?

Right.

First Smiles!

On Friday, I got my first smile out of Baby Addison. She just looked up at me and smiled. I think Ryan doubted my claims that she was smiling at me until he got one himself yesterday. And then we both saw some together that night.
So I busted out our baby calendar and slapped that "first smile" sticker for Thursday. And then I smiled.

Airplanes!

My friend Kathy and I took the kids to "Color Me Mine" and worked on a few fun projects together with Dylan.

Dylan made this airplane, which turned out really neat. See the progression in photos here. We also worked on a few other Christmas presents, which we get to pick up tomorrow.
I was impressed with how long Dylan lasted, painting and being patient while I finished projects like one I did of Addie's footprints on a tile. He lasted for 2-3 hours each time we went. It really helped that Kathy was there to redirect him when he got bored or restless. And of course it helped that Addie slept nearly the entire time!

Afterwards, we went to eat lunch and get some ice cream, which was the perfect treat for tired artists.
Dylan wanted to play with his new airplane, but we quickly determined that a 3 year old probably shouldn't be playing with a ceramic airplane. So I promised if he agreed to put his new special airplane on the shelf, I'd get him another airplane he could play with.

After scouring the stores of South Pasadena on Thursday, I finally found one. He loves it.
In fact, Dylan loves his little die-cast stealth fighter plane so much that Ryan decided another fun project would be to make a model airplane together.
I'll post some pictures of that when they finish it up tomorrow.

Toddler Trauma

On Sunday we went down to Anaheim to visit our friend who is staying down there for a conference.

We had a lovely lunch and dinner out together. And Julie and I had lots of time to catch up on things while Dylan and Ryan enjoyed the pool at her hotel for a couple hours (*story to follow).

Plus we had a lot of excitement...
For starters, after Dylan's nearly 2 hour play event in the pool and spa (while Julie and I held baby Addie and chatted), we returned to Julie's room to change for dinner. When Dylan peeled off his diaper, we discovered what Julie accurately called a gigantic "poo-splosion" (OH.MY.GOODNESS.) that had clearly occured much, much earlier, turning into a disintegrated dripping mess all over her bathroom when he pulled off his diaper! Ryan and Dylan took a shower and cleaned up. I called housekeeping and did damage control so Julie wouldn't gag for the next couple days. Thankfully this all happened with Julie, a fellow understanding mom and dear friend, who helped us see the humor in it all and laugh our way through!

We then decided to head out for a change in scenery (and smell) for dinner, so we headed out to our car in the hotel parking garage. Julie and Dylan ran ahead, giggling and playing (p.s. Dylan ADORED her!)...
and next thing we knew, Dylan had stuck his head through the railing and got his little head STUCK!
He panicked.
He cried.
Ryan pulled.
Dylan cried some more.
And FINALLY his head came lose.
Poor Dylan. He was traumatized, shaking, and scared.

And after dinner, walking back to the car, Julie and I commented that Dylan had one rough day and was being very good considering all that he'd been through on top of no nap... when suddenly (probably because he was so tired) he fell down outside the restaurant and skinned his knees.
More tears.

There was no shortage of excitement to our visit. There never is when we get together....

It was like not a day had passed since our last visit two years ago. And despite all the boo-boos, it truly was a great visit!



The day ended. We dropped Julie back off at her hotel, exchanged sorrowful hugs, and headed back home.
Dylan was asleep before we got to the freeway.

Update: 6 weeks

Today Addie is 6 weeks old. She's fabulous. She sleeps well at night (as long as she can eat 1-2 times between midnight and 8am, she's happy). And she puts up with her brother's sometimes more-than-gentle displays of affection like a champ. I love her awake time, staring into her eyes and thinking about what the next months will bring us in the way of smiles, coos, and socialization with our baby girl. She looks a lot like Dylan at this age, still with dark brown hair with a hint of red to it and bluish eyes. She has long fingers and toes. She is a snuggler, which I love. And she really is pretty easy to please at this point as long as she gets plenty to eat and keeps cozy near mama.

This afternoon Ryan and I met at JC Pennys for a portrait session with baby. She did pretty good, yielding us about 4 pictures we really liked and were able to order. I still haven't gotten around to making up my mind on birth announcements, so that's hanging over my head. But at least I'm on target with picture taking...

In the words of a toddler

You know you are living in 2008 when...

Dylan: "Who you texting Daddy?"

Cousins

Dylan spent some time up at his "Candyhouse Nandma and Tapa's" house up in Lompoc a couple weeks ago.
He soaked up some quality time with his three cousins and even got to celebrate his youngest cousin's 2nd birthday (Dominick) at his party before coming home. Here's a picture of me with my sister, mom, and cousin Hayley during the party.
Trying to get a picture of the boys...
Dominick decided to turn around the opposite way just as Ryan shot the picture.
Gotta love trying to pin down three toddler boys for a picture, hoping and pleading that they'll look at the camera, not run away, and cooperate just a smidgen. Here is the best one we got of the three of them outside the bounce-house at the party.
The combination of no nap and hours playing with his cousins, led to a VERY tired toddler at the end of the day. Both of our kids were asleep already in the back seat as we rounded the corner to head back to LA and stayed asleep until we pulled into the garage 3 hours later!

New Car

We got a new car. Long story, but in the end, we decided to trade in my car (2001 VW Passat) for this one.
Went with the magnetic gray metallic exterior and black leather interior.
It's lovely. We fight over who gets to drive. And a bonus, we all comfortably fit in the car together now!

Kid Update

Last week both kids had their pediatrican appointments (incidently the same day we bought the new car). Dylan's was his 3-year checkup (no shots this time around). Addie's was a 1-month checkup.
Both kids did great!

Dylan's Stats:
33 pounds, 3 ounces (50-75th percentile)
39.5 inches tall (80-85th percentile)

Addison's Stats:
7 pounds, 11 ounces (10th percentile)
21.5 inches long (50-75th percentile)
35.75cm head circumference (10-25th percentile)

And another milestone to point out: Addie rolled over from her tummy to her back last night. I thought that was a bit advanced, and it is pretty early from what I read online...
Hope that doesn't mean she'll be crawling early. I need some more time to adjust to two kids before she takes off!