Ben's First Month

Some pictures from right before Ben was Born:

Rob and Judy took Mackenzie overnight to Monterey to visit Annalise (Jeremy's cousin Molly's daughter) and to see the aquarium. They all had a great time, and even got to spend some time at the beach too. It was M's first time at an aquarium.

Annie, her Grandpa Joe, Rob and Mackenzie

M&A

Papa wraps up baby after a swim

Exploring the aquarium

Morning at the beach!

M at a "bunny party" around Easter time

Getting dressed up at the Ranch

Playing carefully with baby chicks

We managed to get in our summer garden right before Ben's arrival. Jeremy turned our compost pile and found about a million worms in there. Great for the soil, but I didn't want to touch them. My little girl however, decided she loved worms. they are her friends. She kept playing with them and would be very disappointed when they disappeared under the soil. She kept asking me where they went and why she couldn't play with them. I had to tell her lots of stories about how they lived underground and that they would make our tomatoes grow bigger. 

They also had a spring performance at school, and her class dressed 

On a walk with Grandpa in Shell Ridge

Loves running around with Jack

Our first month with baby B has been a blur. I can't believe he's already 5 weeks but it does feel like I've had him forever at the same time. I forgot how hard newborns are. I think we are programmed to forget in order to have more kids! But I can't remember M being this much work...then again I have her to look after on top of having him too. He's generally a great baby, sleeps a lot and is starting to really look at me, and I think starting to give me smiles! He still wants to be held all the time which makes doing anything else a challenge. And the evening can get pretty hairy! He is generally very fussy around 8 or 9 pm for an hour or two. Nothing makes him feel better, so Jeremy and I basically take turns passing a cranky baby back and forth until he wears himself out and goes to sleep. When he does I usually head straight to bed with him, to seize the opportunity. He's recently started to sleep for 3 hours at a time, which seems like heaven compared to the 2 hours he's been doing for his first month of life. I'm crossing my fingers he keeps extending it and soon we'll be doing 4 hour stretches then 5 then eventually the whole night! M didn't sleep through the night until she was about 11 months old, so I'm really really hoping he'll do it sooner! That seems like a long ways away. 

Daddy and son sleeping

Wide Awake!

My very first car trip with two!

A lot of M's classmates are finally turning 3, so we have had a few birthday parties to go to recently. One of them was at the same bounce farm we had Mackenzie's at. Even though B was only two weeks old at the time, I thought it was important to go so that she'd have something fun to go to that wasn't about the baby. 

Riding a motorcycle

Taking Rell to see the baby. They're walking the wrong direction.

M loves showing off the baby to her friends at school when I bring him to come pick her up, or anyone else who happens to come by our house. She says "do you want to see MY baby?" All the toddlers at school just love babies and want to get right up close in his face...its pretty cute...and germy. I don't know how many times I've told M not to put her face so close to his. 

 

Loves being right in his face!

Crying!

My Boys

M and her best friend, Papa

Dressing up at Small Talk Cafe

More sleeping with Daddy

My girl has been getting sneaker, and starting to hide things. When all my wubbanub pacifiers (pacifiers with a stuffed animal attached) went missing I immediately had one suspect...she denied and denied hiding them, but I eventually found them on the floor between the refrigerator and the wall!  Im pretty sure she just didn't remember hiding them instead of lying about never doing it, but she still got in a bit of trouble! I think we've got a little more of the "terrible threes" going on with her, because she used to do whatever I asked pretty much right away. These days, there's a lot of "no I don't want to" and running away, and refusing to follow mommy's instructions. I probably notice it more too since it's really important she cooperate now that I have the baby too. 

Another birthday party

Walking our babies with our strollers