Oh-Bla-Di

Here are five fun things for Friday.

Fun Thing #1:

Ava and I have become addicted to a new-to-us music group called Rabbit.  You should go give it a listen.  It’s happy, it’s peppy, it makes a 30 mile commute a sort of fun thing to do.  My favorite is Ladybug.  This album is awesome because Ava will even let me sing along with it.  

Fun Thing #2:

At the same time we discovered Rabbit, Ava and I also started digging a kids’ album called Do Fun Stuff, Vol. 1.  Rabbit does several of the songs on this compilation, too.  Seriously fun, not annoying kids music.  Ava’s favorite is “Potty Time”!  She knows all the words and sings along.  It’s the second song on the album…she only listens to the first song because I make her wait to get to “Potty Time.”

Fun Thing #3:

We’ve had super good luck with Craigslist in the last two weeks.  We scored a bike for Ava’s birthday for $10 and a double jogger stroller for $50.  The bike is going to get a fresh coat of paint, a new seat, a bell and a basket this weekend.  The jogger was the key element to a very fun walk the kiddos and I took earlier this week.  Hooray for turning others’ old stuff into our new fun stuff!

Fun Thing #4:

Ava can spell her name.  She did that for me for the first time last night.  And, now, she can write it too!  She learned that within five minutes of spelling it for me.  So, so proud of our smart girl.

Fun Thing #5:

The boy, he talks.  And smiles.

We’re really in the new, post-baby schedule now.  Ava’s school hours have been cut back to just 25 a week, so that means that Fridays are no longer the solo-Mommy, get-projects-done days of yore.  But, I do have a little time during naps to post an update, so here it is…in list form, of course.

1.  Noah goes to his first day of school on Monday.  I’m both sad and totally ok with the idea.  He’ll be there for five hours, four days a week…same as Ava.  The hours he’s at school will include two naps and about an hour and a half of awake time.  I’m sad to miss that hour and a half, since I know it’ll become oh so important over the next several months, but I feel ok with these hours because we’re basically paying for him to have a safe place to sleep while I go to work.  Remind me of this next week.

2.  Noah can go to school and that means that he’s six weeks old.  Seriously, where did six weeks go?  Can’t believe it’s gone so quickly.  I remember that amount of time taking so much longer when Ava was a newborn.  He’s getting so much bigger and so much more active.  He even talks to us sometimes!  He laughs in his sleep all the time, but we haven’t seen any awake laughs since he was a week old.  Can’t wait to hear that again.

3.  We finally got photos printed from the first few weeks of being a family of four.  I’ve hung them up in all the places I’ve been planning for them to be for months.  It’s so nice to see the faces of all the people I love as I walk around doing chores and stuff.  My last maternity leave project was to create some more space for photos since we have more faces and more photos we love.  I just finished this project (about 10 minutes ago) so this maybe the fastest completion-to-blog project ever.  Best part of the project is that it was completely free!  It’s not so bad to not be able to afford expensive artwork when you’ve got such priceless people to look at instead.

4.  Speaking of priceless people, on Wednesday night, I made chili-mac for dinner.  It was pretty good considering that five minutes before I started cooking I had no idea what I was going to make.  Anyway, Ava was having none of it.  So, I made her sit at the table until she ate the small portion I pushed to the side of her plate.  An hour and a half later, she still hadn’t eaten any.  She had, however, conducted several circle time sessions with her imaginary students.  Can’t punish a kid with an overactive imagination by leaving her alone.  She just makes up friends!

“Ava, what does a three-year-old look like?”

5.  Matt’s been at work until at least 6:30 every night this week, but he was home a couple of mornings to help out with that end of the deal.  Can’t decide which I prefer – help in the morning, especially after a fairly sleepless night, or help in the evening after a long afternoon with the kiddos?  If I’m really honest, I’d have to say that I want both.  It would be awesome to actually see him in the morning and still know that the kids will see him before going to bed at night.  Maybe at the next job…

And a bonus #6…

While I was upstairs feeding Noah just now, Ava was down the hall settling in to a nap by singing to herself.  Someone rang the doorbell and set Libby off.  Being trapped under a tiny human, there wasn’t a thing I could do about any of it.  Ava’s response to the barking?  She started howling.  Yay for Fridays!

Happy weekend, everyone!

Angela Mildon came back to our house when Noah was exactly a week old to do his newborn shoot.  As expected, she did a fantastic job and we got so many great shots that we love.  We acquired the digital files, so can share them here with you as well as hang them all over our house.     Not really much to say except, thanks, Angela, for the great work and enjoy everyone!

And, now, what may be my two most favorite pictures ever.

Dear Noah,

It’s been four weeks since you became a part of our family. I can’t help but wonder what you think of it so far. If I had to guess, I’d imagine you think it’s pretty noisy, but otherwise ok. Certainly, you’ve spent the last month being loved, adored, and documented to within an inch of your life. Hope that doesn’t leave you too terribly grouchy.

So far, you’ve been a pretty chill baby. You sleep a TON during the day…pretty much the whole time your big sister is gone to school. Your awake hours are conveniently after your daddy gets home from work, so we all get to enjoy seeing your bright eyes in the evenings. You’re just starting to really wake up and take a look at the world around you, so we’ve been spending more time with the playmat and working on tracking toys with your eyes and putting in some tummy time.

You’re still a champion eater and are gaining weight at a pretty good clip. We had a day last week when you decided it would be fun to spit up enormous amounts of the contents of your stomach, which wasn’t really so awesome. I spent the evening researching acid reflux and dairy allergies and then a very long night trying to get you to nurse on a different schedule than you wanted. Turns out you’re probably not really bothered by anything I have eaten, but have a “full line” like your daddy. If your tank is too full, your little tummy will do what it has to get rid of the excess. This will become even more interesting when you eat your first cotton candy or too much pizza. So much fun (and laundry) in our futures!

Although you were an amazing sleeper for the first couple of weeks we had you home, you’ve slowly transitioned to a two-hour stretch kind of guy. Guess you really are one of our kids after all. Hopefully, we’ll find a way to stretch your sleep back out to four hour experiences…especially when I go back to work in a couple of weeks. You’re still pretty cute, though, when you snuggle in and sleep on your pillow on the couch. Kinda wish I had the stamina to go without sleep to allow that kind of cute behavior for longer. But, you’re going to have to learn to sleep at night sooner than later, buddy boy.

Just wanted you to know, Noah, that you’re a loved baby boy. We’re all so excited you’re here! Happy one month, little guy.

9/28/10 Edit:
Stats from one month checkup: 10 lbs, 10 oz & 22 in. Doc says, “Wow. He’s a big baby!”

So, we’re two weeks in to this two kids thing and it’s going pretty ok so far. Of course, we’ve had lots of help in the form of delivered meals and visiting grandparents, but Noah’s also been a pretty chill kiddo. Since Noah’s hit a milestone that requires a doctor’s visit (so many of those in our future!), I thought it might be time for a little list to share all about him.

At two weeks, Noah…

*Is a champion eater. No issues and that has made all the difference in my frustration levels. Feeding was the most challenging part of the first two weeks with Ava, and I’m so grateful that we’ve been able to work this important function out so quickly.

*Definitely looks like he’s gained a good bit of weight…and, we found out at his appointment today that he has!  Noah weighed in at 8lbs, 12 oz, and was 21.25 in.  Baby boy is getting big!

*Is staying awake for longer stretches during the day. Doozy’s now able to keep his eyes (which we think are going to be blue) open for hour long stretches two or three times a day. We try to make sure one of those hours is between 7pm and 9pm.

*Goes to bed at 9pm and usually wakes up to be fed between 2am and 3am. Glorious. It’s not even so bad that he’s usually up at 6am, since that’s when we get up with Ava anyway.

*Is getting more comfortable with the idea that his arms are attached to his body and, sometimes, they flail around. He sleeps in a Woombie at night (thanks for the tip, Sara!) which seems to keep him very happy, but he’s getting better at sleeping unswaddled during the day.

*Has giggled at us….twice! Noah is very ticklish and will laugh when tickled. He also smiles quite a bit. And, yes, I’m certain it’s not just gas.

*Sleeps right through his sister’s hooting and hollering, but also doesn’t seem to mind her Eskimo kisses and affection when he’s awake.

To sum it up, we sure love our little guy and we’re excited that he’s growing so well and so happily!  Looking forward to sharing more again soon!