Three Months!!

Here she is!  No doctor appointment this time, so I don't have any stats, but as far as I can tell she is a growing and healthy little girl.

- We discovered that her fussiness was caused by some mild reflux.  She's been on Zantac for about a month and it has made a world of difference.  She is much happier throughout the day, the spit up/vomit has decreased drastically and she doesn't cry while nursing anymore.  Poor little thing was in pain!

- And now that we have a happier Laurel, we are getting smiles and giggles all the time!

- She is working very, very hard on getting her fingers or thumb to her mouth.  She has succeeded with the fist, I'm sure the thumb (or fingers) is next.  For some reason neither of my kids will take to a pacifier, so I'm actually looking forward to the day that she succeeds and can comfort herself!  I may regret this in five years, but I will deal with it then :-)

- She is still sleeping in our room, but we plan to change that this coming weekend.  I'm sure she will be fine, but I'm crossing my fingers that the two of them are not going to wake each other up all the time since their rooms share a wall.  Sleep is a precious thing around here and I hate to mess it up!

- She is proving to be a very flexible baby, which is great and makes it much easier to keep her big sister involved in all of her play dates and fun activities.

Cousins

Hanging out and patiently waiting for Baby Girl Graham to join in the fun!



From the mouth of a toddler

Maya's language skills are developing at a tremendous rate and the words and phrases she comes up with are both impressive and hilarious.

This morning in the car, she gave one of her books a big hug and said, "Maya love book".

I call her Honey quite often and she has picked up on this. In a moment of frustration, I was trying to explain to her why something wasn't allowed and started the sentence off by calling her Honey. She looked right in my eyes, got a huge grin on her face and said "Honey" right back at me. I couldn't help but laugh and my frustration disappeared.

She also finds if funny to say, "huh?". In the car the other day, all three of us had to keep saying honey and huh, over and over again. With Maya dictating whose turn it was to say what, of course. She laughed and laughed.

She has told me Daddy's car is stinky, many times. Which is a little ironic since his car is much cleaner than mine at all times.

I picked up her milk cup off the floor and she told me, "good job mommy". Apparently another phrase I use quite often.

She likes to tell us when, "Maya make a mess". Which, lucky for us is usually followed by, "Maya pick it up".

You begin to realize that the English language can be a bit complicated. I wondered why she kept talking about slides every time I said we had to park the car. She thought we were going to the park. We had to pick Daddy up from work and when I mentioned that to her she kept asking if Daddy fell down. In her mind, you pick people up when they fall down. I can see how these might be confusing, same words, very different meanings!

Her sentences are becoming longer and more complete, yesterday she told me "Mommy, wait your turn". And she is replacing words with new ones, instead of asking for food, she has started saying she is hungry.

I can't wait to hear what comes out of her mouth next!

Road Trip

Last weekend, the family piled into the car and headed down to Portland to celebrate Samantha (my cousin) graduating from Oregon State.  We were pretty nervous about it... would they do ok on the long car ride?  would they sleep ok in a hotel room?  But everything turned out great, they sure were troopers.

Maya and Rey enjoyed swimming in the pool at the hotel, we visited with family, indulged in some great food and even got a good nights sleep!

Congratulations Samantha Lynn!!  Welcome to the real world :-)

Maya made a new friend, her second cousin (cousin once removed?) Sami.

Laurel met Grammy for the first time.

The spitting image of her Daddy.

Giggles

Daddy was able to coax out Laurel's first giggles this week!  Such a wonderful sound...

Two Months!!

Well, we have survived two months with two kids!  Laurel is such a growing girl... her stats from her two month appointment.  Height 22 in (25%), Weight 10lb 14oz (50%), Head 15.5 in (75%).  She is quickly growing out of Maya's summer clothes, hopefully we have enough to last!  Although, it might be a great excuse to go shopping. 

- We are getting definite smiles and she seems to have found her voice.

- She is much fussier than Maya ever was.  At this point, we trying to figure out if something is bothering her or if it is just general baby fussiness.

- She is a great sleeper at night and consistently gives us a 7-8 hour stretch.  Now, if only we could figure out how to get her to nap with out being in the car or being held!

TWO!

Our little girl is officially a two year old and she is taking on this new stage in life without hesitation. As her parents, each of our days are met with laughter, astonishment and frustration. She has an amazing sense of humor and the things she comes up with keeps us laughing. She continually astonishes us with the amount she has learned and the desire she has to keep learning. The toddler meltdowns run rampant and although we try to keep cool, at some point the frustration can't be held back.

We had her 2 year appointment yesterday and she has continued to increase on the scale - which is SUCH a relief.  She is now 23lbs (8%) and 32.5 in (15%).  We no longer have to supplement and just keep her eating the healthy fats in her meals.  Getting this girl to smile for a camera is near impossible, but here she is!

Here are some of the highlights:

- Her new favorite phrases are, "Maya like it" or "Maya no like it". This is used on all kinds of things, but mostly when presented with food or the outfit I picked out that morning.

- She is starting to verbalize her feelings, in particular when she is scared. We learned she is scared of the dark, but nothing a new princess nightlight wouldn't fix.  She is also scared of the dinosaurs at the zoo and apparently whales.  She didn't want to ride on the carousel hourses because they were too big.

- I know I have mentioned this before, but man does she talk. And now she has added singing to that. Quiet doesn't really exist unless she is super tired. She chatters away to herself (and us) constantly. And sings to herself all the time - her current favorite song is, It's Raining, It's Pouring.

- She has fully accepted that Laurel is a part of our family and always makes sure Laurel is included when we are singing songs that include our names or when we practice letters by writing our names. Before it was just Mommy, Daddy and Maya. She doesn't want to get her picture taken unless Baby Laurel is in it with her.

- She has such a big heart.  She gives out hugs and kisses to make you feel better.  Yesterday at the Doctor, she helped hold Laurel's hand when it was Laurel's turn for the shots and she got a little teary when Laurel cried.

- The biggest news of all, Maya is officially in a big girl bed! A little sooner than I planned, but once she got a taste of it, there was no way she wanted back in that crib. Luckily she has done really well with it. The first week or so was a little rough as she got used to it, there were some really early wake up calls, but now she is back to her regular sleep pattern.