Some pics for you

. . . because I feel like I should post some. I do want to tell you about Sophie's first haircut over the weekend, but I have yet to take an "after" shot. Today would have been a good day because she was dressed for church, but. . . sigh. It just didn't happen.

Another tub shot. I love these.


Ever seen the book, Stuff On My Cat? It's a silly book with photos of cats with things piled on top of them. Well, this is Stuff On My Baby. I've been trying to figure out how to get Ivy to sleep longer during her naps, and putting a heavy blanket on her seems to work. Steve added a pillow for good measure.


Read to your baby.

Daddy's time with Ivy.


Sophie found these glasses and decided they were the coolest thing ever. They would be, if they weren't infant-sized. At least they match her shirt.

A few other tidbits. . .

Steve is finishing up another quarter of chiropractic school -- his 7th quarter (out of 12). It's hard to believe we're over halfway done. He starts working in the clinic this summer which means I'll soon be under the care of "Dr. Steve" as everyone there calls him. I'm excited that he gets to start using what he's learned all of these months.

Ivy likes her avocado-goat milk mush a lot better than her rice cereal-goat milk mush. Why goat milk? I can't use breastmilk because I can't pump. Nothing comes out. Not even with a double-electric an hour and a half after I feed her. Goat's milk is closer to breastmilk than cow's milk, and it has a higher fat content, which may give my little girl a few more rolls.

Let's see, what else? Oh, Sophie can open the fridge now, and has started sitting on the potty again. (After she peed that one time she quit sitting there all together.) No business being done, but at least she's sitting again. We give her an M&M just for that. She always wants yellow ones.

Nothing new with me. If I sewed more (I keep trying to like it, but it just isn't happening.), I would make one of these.

What's Going On . . . Numerically

2 - hours Ivy slept during her afternoon nap yesterday. Usually she cat naps in 15-minute increments.
3 - inches Sophie has grown in the last six months.
5 - minutes it took to get Ivy to sleep last night WITHOUT NURSING her to sleep. Also the number of snowmen I made out of playdough for Sophie today. She has a thing for snowmen.
7 - consecutive hours Ivy slept last night. That's her all-time record now.
35 - pounds I gained while pregnant with Ivy. Also the number of pounds I've lost since Ivy was born. (Hooray, they're gone! Now about those 15 I gained before I got pregnant. . . hmmm.)

Second Children

Ivy uses her binkie as a plaything. Putting it into her mouth when she's upset just makes her more upset. Bummer.

All the jokes about the decreased number of photos that parents take of their second children aren't jokes. They're pretty accurate actually. At least in my family. And Steve's. I, the first born, have a giant box full of baby pictures (some of which I attempted to scrapbook as a Laurel project. Ugh. Didn't get very far.) My brother has about 12. Steve is also a second child, and I think I have only seen three pictures of him as a baby. That's just the way it is.

Poor Ivy. Even though we consciously try to take pictures of her, we still take more of Sophie because everything she does is a novelty. I didn't even have a "Happy Six Month Birthday Ivy" post ready like I did with Sophie. I'm 2 days late. I'm also very tired. (We're still getting up every other hour most nights. AHHHH!)

So here you go, Ivy. Happy Six Months (and two days)!

Here's a little clip of her very first taste of something solid -- avocado. I love how nonchalant she is.

Friends

Whenever I tell people that my girls are 18 months apart, they always tell me stories of themselves or their children who are the best of friends with a sibling close in age. Sophie and Ivy really like each other so far. Sophie gives Ivy toys to play with and occasionally sits on her or shares her snacks. It's all out of love, of course. Ivy's face always lights up when Sophie's around and thinks it's hysterical when Sophie jumps up and down.

Maybe they should add another warning sticker to the Bumbo. Hmm.

I took the girls in for their checkups this week and here are their stats:

Sophie:
Height - 34 in (50th per.)
Weight - 24.5 lbs (20th per.)

Ivy:
Height - 24 in (5th per.)
Weight - 12 lbs (around 1st per.)

Yes, 12 pounds. Ivy, my six-month-old, weighs just 12 pounds. I know she eats. I'm with her every time she does, which is still about every two to three hours around the clock. I think we're going to start her on solids this week. Maybe some avocados will plump her up.

Two Part II

I think it takes almost as long to put together a blog post about a birthday party (one that will keep my long-distance family well-informed) as it does to prepare for the party itself.

Anyways. . . yes, I can believe that Sophie is two. Her two-ness has manifested itself since before Ivy was born. She's a complicated little girl, but what girl isn't? We love her, though, and she never ceases to make us laugh. Most days I wouldn't trade her for anything.

Joking. (sorta)

The Birthday Girl started out her special day opening presents from my family and eating waffles (with "boo-bah's" in them), per Sophie's request. Steve even skipped a class that morning so he could spend it with us. Aww.

Poor Ivy. Her time is coming soon. Next week, actually.

I threw this in so you could see a classic Sophie Morning Mullet. Her hair is crazy. So is she. About waffles. :)

When Steve got home from school, they got out the bubble machine that grandma sent her and played in the front yard.

Since I had to do a lot of food prep for the next day, we had pizza for dinner -- Sophie's favorite. Since she'd be getting cake the next day, we stuck candles in her pizza and sang to her.

Um, probably should have let the pizza cool off first.

The next day we invited some friends over to hang out. And help us eat some cake. A few things about these pics . . . the breeze kept blowing the candles out, so we kept relighting them. I think she got bored. . . Asher, the little blond headed boy helped her open her presents. Sophie didn't mind. She stood back, in the apron Asher's mom made for her, and watched. Those two are cute. Want an update on their relationship? . . . and yes, those are butterflies on her cake. I'll be posting about that soon (on my other blog).

It's a little choppy, but we got the essentials. :)

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Two

The day we met

A year ago

Last week. And proof that I actually fix her hair.

Happy Birthday to our spunky little Sophie! We love you :)

Mother's Day Part 2

For some reason it never occurs to me to get appropriate pictures on certain days. It should be a no brainer to get a picture of the mother with her children on Mother's Day. Instead, I'm posting some pics of the girls, of the backsides of a couple of my friends, and video clip of Ivy. With Steve.

Sigh. Oh Well.

For the grandmas I had Sophie paint on some blank cards, then tucked this little picture inside:

It's funny to me how Ivy's upper lip disappears when she smiles.

On Saturday a few of us girls went to downtown Pleasanton for lunch and some shopping. Sophie stayed home with Steve, and I took Ivy. (I would have left her, too, if she wasn't tethered to me. She's a nursing maniac.) There was a breast cancer awareness walk the same day, so we saw some interesting signs. Like this one.

I may get in trouble for posting this, but I really shouldn't. I'm sure you'd rather see their cute backsides than mine.

Sunday morning I came downstairs to a yummy breakfast made by Steve, a card that Sophie and Ivy "signed", a note from Steve that also made me tear up, and a pretty rose in a bud vase. That (plus shopping childless for four hours) is all a mom wants. Really.

I dug out this little red dress from some outfits Sophie got when she was born. By the time I received this one, she'd already out grown it. Luckily it was a gorgeous day and it fit Ivy perfectly.

It's a halter, if you can't tell, and ties at the back of the neck. Sassy little thing. :)

Ivy's also discovered her toes. We tried to get it on film, but . . . you know how that goes.

Yes, I realize she's not in the most modest of positions, but her legs are so dang cute. And she's a baby. It doesn't count yet. :)

Happy Mother's Day

That yellow mess would be a mango-banana-pineapple-yogurt smoothie mixed with leftover vegetable soup from the night before (that she refused to eat). She drank about four glasses full. Despite the mess, I'm glad she got her veggies. She's picky now. But I'm getting sneakier.

This picture pretty much sums up what we've been up to these, um . . . ten days since I've posted. (Sorry Grandma & Grandpa.) Like I said on my other blog, I've been using this past week or so to catch up on some housework and try to organize our home a little better. OK, mostly to sort through the girls' clothes and rotate some out from a storage bin in the garage. It's a lot of work. They have so many clothes that I wonder sometimes why I do laundry so much. Oh yeah, because my closet is the one lacking - or rather - the amount of clothes I can fit into is small in comparison.

Where was I? Oh yeah, trying to clean our house with a tornado behind me. It's like taking two steps forward and one step backward. Or one step forward and 14 steps backward. When I get overwhelmed and can't get our home to stay as organized as I would like, I just try to remember that my kids won't be little for very long. I spoke to my mom on the phone last year a few days after visiting them and she said she hadn't put Sophie's toys away. She said she missed having them scattered all over the floor. I try to remember that, let some of the clutter stay, and enjoy my girls in the stages they're in. (Although, a few hundred extra square feet would make the messes seem smaller.)

Speaking of not getting everything done that I would like, I have a squirmy little Ivy on my lap rubbing her eyes . . . So,

[Insert flowery, sentimental tribute to mothers.]

Happy Mothers Day to all women in our lives! We love you!