Seattle Day 4: Time to go home

We finished off our Seattle vacation with a bang - - or more accurately, a crack!  We smashed confetti eggs on each other outside.  :)

Maxwell posed to get Emmalyn

Confetti everywhere!

Lucky Konrad on clean up duty

After that, we headed to the airport to go home.

Score - got her to fall asleep again!

Rosy red cheeks post nap

Silly girl

Update on what the kids have been up to...

Emmalyn now says "butt head". I thought at first she didn't know what she was saying but no, she was calling names.

Emmalyn still puts her hand down my shirt.

She loved the stairs and the motorcycle when we were at Ashlee's. 

In the morning when I'm nursing her and have to stop to use the restroom, Emmalyn peppers me with questions when I come back.  She will ask if I washed my hands (she can smell it) by saying, "Wash hands Momma?" then "Soap?" and "towel?"  Girl is giving me the third degree!

She picks on her brother by touching the screen on his iPad or pushing him if he's next to her.

She hasn't gone potty in the potty again after that one time.

She sleeps with her pink puppy and her purple turtle on either side of her face each night when she goes to sleep.  

Often people will comment on how clear her talking is.

She is demanding!  And her tantrums have escalated to throwing things, flailing, and kicking. (Is she 2 years old yet???)

Emmalyn wants her binky all the time.  She got it a little more on vacation than she usually would.  Normally it would be during sleeping only.

Emmalyn asks for "cereal" and "malk" (Milk) every morning after asking for milk from me.  She will now say "cereal and malk in bowl" which means she wants it like you would typically eat cereal instead of getting a sippy cup with milk and some cereal in a sandwich bag.

In the morning she always asks about what Maxwell is doing.

Maxwell in still in 3t pants.

Max started learning multiplication in school this week (I had already taught him the 0s. He totally got the concept of that.) 

Week of May 18th, 2014

Picnic in the car with yummy BBQ from the guy outside Home Depot.

Peter delivered on his Anniversary present - - installing drip lines into our sprinkler system.

Can you see the drip line?  He did a nice job of making it inconspicuous.

I am so happy to not have to worry about hand watering anymore!  Thanks Peter for doing such a nice job on this!

Hanging out on the patio

This girl loves her baths.  She'd hang out happily like this for a long time, as long as she just ate.  :)

Took Emmalyn in for her one month doctor's appt.

Her pediatrician would have liked to have seen her gain more weight than she did.  He wants me to pop in just for a weight check in two weeks.  He also wants me to start "topping her off" on the other side when I'm nursing.  I'm not so sure about that because she's already spitting up a ton and doesn't act hungry when she's done eating.

He also suggested using Cetaphil as a face wash again to help with her acne.  Since it's gotten so bad, I decided to take his suggestion and went after the appointment to get the wash and the moisturizer.  I am supposed to wash her face once a day and moisturize it twice.  The nice thing about Cetaphil is you doing have to use water with it so I can just put the wash on her face and then wash off the excess, I don't have to go through the hassle of rinsing off the wash.

She got a shot at this appointment.  It's so awful watching your baby scream after getting poked.  :(  The nurse suggested that I could stay as long as I needed in the room and I could nurse if I want to help soothe her.  I have never thought of nursing before to help soothe them...I thought it was a great idea.  I think it helped!  Or...at least it made me feel like I was helping her.

Here's her stats from her 4 week visit (which happened closer to 5 weeks):

Weight: 8 lbs 3 oz, 13th Percentile

Height: 20 1/2 in, 9th Percentile

Head: 14.3, 31st Percentile

We tried out the play mat

Video - I think we have the beginning of "coos" here...

It was a windy day so I got out the (cheap) kites and we tried to get them up.

It didn't work.  The wind was gusty but not consistent enough to keep a kite up.

Evidence of the shot

Pretty girl in her pretty flowery dress

She likes being outside and so does Max. But she eats, quite frequently...and Max doesn't like to play outside by himself.  So today, she dined outside.

Ahh...the silly face game.  

This one went to Daddy...

...And this one came back from Daddy.

Video - Maxwell and Daddy playing tag.  Sorry for the crazy camera work!

We went out to dinner.  We are eating out more frequently because I'm wiped out and so if Brittany doesn't cook, then eating out is our option.  

(Emmalyn ate here too.  Someone asked me what the strangest place I've ever nursed was and that was hard to answer because I've nursed pretty much everywhere...restaurants, sporting events, parks, airports, airplanes, outside, inside, my car, a bathroom, swimming pool.  If I didn't nurse when we were out, I'd never get to go out!)

Max got this book out and was reading by himself, first time he's done that without one of us reading with him.  I'd love for him to be a lover of books!

He's got his tool set with him so he can go to work.

Emmalyn's first walk in the neighborhood (with Britt and the boys)

He's not tall enough to pedal so he just pushes this bike along and his poor ankles get beat up by the training wheels.  We are just going to take the wheels off and it can be a balance bike.

Yummy popsicles outside.  For once, Max has a dirty face like Landen!  (Landen is usually a mess and Max is pretty clean.)

Is she sucking her thumb?

Max hasn't been napping as well lately.  He will go down like usual but then I hear him in there singing or talking or just moving around.  He doesn't get out of bed but he doesn't go to sleep.  Usually if I go in there after awhile and tell him to go to sleep he will finally go to sleep.  I REALLY hope he isn't starting to be done taking naps.  Also, he covered HIMSELF up with a blanket after I left the room one day, he's never covered himself up before.  I'm so proud of him when he does new things for the first time but then a part of me is also sad because it's something else he can do without my help.
I get emails that say what Max should be doing developmentally at each age... "Here's what your child should be doing at 21 months..." etc.  I got one recently that said children his age should be saying 4-6 word sentences.  I thought that was interesting so I started paying attention to how many words Max uses in his sentences.  I regularly counted 8-10!  Way to go, buddy.
Recently he has started using the words "delicious" and "interesting".  He'll say "mmm...that's delicious (de-Wicious)" or "that's interesting".
He certainly wants to do things on his own!  He laid down next to Landen today to read a book to him and started with "once upon a time..."   I don't know where this kid picks up things like that, it's not like the books we read to him start that way...  Maybe the show "SUPER WHY" ?

Mom, are you going to work today?

Every morning, Max wakes up and calls "Peter, come get me" (okay - 2% of the time he calls for Momma) and Peter hears him on the web cam and goes and gets him from his bed.  He brings Max into our bed and then goes and gets him his half a vitamin, some milk in a non-spill sippy cup, and some type of dry breakfast cereal (lately cheerios, fruit "hoops" (loops), or "crunchies" (Cap'n Crunch Berries) in his snack cup.  Max eats his vitamin and then enjoys his milk and cereal while playing on the iPad.  He gets up typically between 6 and 6:30 am so certainly before we are ready to get up.  He plays on this while dad gets ready for work and then after dad leaves until mom is up and has nursed Emmalyn.   Before the baby, I would be somewhat conscious for this process.  Since the baby, this is probably when I get my best sleep and so I am OUT.  Peter is awesome and just takes care of everything and lets me sleep.  

So once I am somewhat up and starting to get going, Max asks me every day "Mom, are you going to work today" and I get to tell him No!  I am staying home with you today.  I love that I get to say No.  I know I am blessed with the ability to take a leave of absence from work and not everyone has that luxury.  It makes me sad because I also know that Max will eventually stop asking every day and then one day, I will have to tell him that I am going to work and it is going to come as a surprise to him and he will have to readjust to me being gone again.

Emmalyn and her buddy Landen

Max is helping more and more with his sister.  He wanted to help put her socks on.

He's really into "Team Work" lately and wants to do everything with team work.  For example, put his pajamas on with team work so that we both do parts of it or cleaning up the toys with team work.

A sign that things might be getting better?  I made myself lunch!

Video - Max wanted to call Peter but instead we sent him a message since he was at work

Still has a bit of hair back there

We planted two different kinds of tomatoes in the topsy turvy planters.  Please tomato gods, give me some tomatoes this year!

The girls getting a little fresh air while the boys played ball

She often will sleep with her hands all tense like this and won't relax them.  Looks uncomfortable to me...

Look how big that white onesie is on her - it's a 0-3 months.  She is so little, especially her lower half...little waist, little bum, little thighs...

Nap time bedhead

Our neighborhood had a neighborhood garage sale and so I spent the day before getting stuff together that I wanted to sell and then taking it over to my great neighbor's house who was letting me add my stuff to her stuff.  The next morning, Max and I hit up a couple of neighbor's houses to check out the kid/baby stuff.  We got some clothes for Emmalyn, a play kitchen (with the supplies) for max (!!! - so excited about this), and Max found this toy and played with it forever while Momma chatted, so we brought it home.

Man, is my kid handsome or what?!

He sure loves wearing his sunglasses

They are starting to develop the land for the 3rd phase of homes behind our house.  Britt and the boys went over there to explore.

So, clearly I post a lot of pics of Emmalyn sleeping and you would think, wow...that baby sleeps a lot, things must be going pretty easily.  NOT.  Here's a note I wrote to Peter on May 2nd to give you a little peak into an honest moment... "I'm tired of this.  I'm tired of dodging poop and cleaning it up.  I'm tired of listening to Landen yell.  I'm tired of listening to Max and Landen fight.  I'm tired of Max not listening.  I'm tired of Emmalyn screaming.  I'm tired of not being able to eat.  I'm tired of hurting.  I'm tired of being tired.  I'm tired of not feeling that I have anything to wear."

Yeah, tough times right now in this new way of life.  I try to remind myself that there are a bunch of adjustments going on... I am adjusting to being home and not at work all day, which also means being around everything that goes on in my house during the day.  I am adjusting to the new baby.  I'm adjusting to dealing with the demands of the new baby.  My body is adjusting to not being pregnant.  Understanding all this mentally doesn't make it easier to deal with emotionally.  I'm blogging about this not because I want sympathy or advice...I'm blogging so that if there is a next time, I can read this and remember that feeling this way is normal and maybe I'll do a better job of adjusting my expectations quicker about all these adjustments.

She's about to be a full three weeks old and I am just starting to feel like she's beginning to connect with us more.   She gives us a little eye contact and I can tell she is listening.  She seems to really struggle to poop and burp.  She cries when she needs to poop and seems to hold onto her burps and we have to work really hard to get them out.