2 Months

I think once you have a second child all sense of time goes out the window. I know with Anayah it seemed like time moved too quickly and she was growing at such a rapid pace. Now with Samara time literally moves at warp speed!! I honestly cannot comprehend the fact that my baby is TWO months old! It doesn't seem real...or possible that that much time has passed. I feel like I haven't done enough to document her milestones or captured enough memories with the camera but then I look through my phone and computer and the thousands hundreds of pictures I've taken reassures me that I have. I guess I just haven't done so great a job of sharing them here. Oops. I'm gonna blame that on the whole "having more than one child and no more time" issue rather than the "I'm too lazy to go upstairs and blog" issue. So in order to make myself feel better and to give you a glimpse of what's been going on this last month, here are a TON of pictures of baby girl. And if you choose to just scroll down to see her stats, I won't be offended. Just don't expect an invite to her first birthday party hehe.

Some of my faves:

I love that she has so many different "looks"!

At two months:
- you are a whopping 9lbs, 11oz and are 22 in long!
- you are still wearing newborn diapers and clothing but are creeping into your 0-3month stuff
- you LOVE to laugh...and you laugh quite loudly which makes you laugh even more
- you recognize our faces and usually greet us with a smile (or laugh)
- you are still a very good eater....about 6-8 feelings between 7am - 9pm BUT
- you only get up once at night to eat! (yay for some sleep)

And your "official" monthly photo on your rug.

Oh man, that reminds me I still need to blog about your nursery. I'll add it to the list of things to do.

Our New Normal

Getting used to being a family of four has been an interesting challenge. I didn't really think it would be a big deal, but adding a new member has been rewarding and trying at the same time. Obviously we absolutely adore the new baby and are so grateful and blessed to have her, and I wouldn't trade it for anything, so don't take it as complaining. All I'm saying is the adjustment has been a bit more difficult than I imagined it to be. The great news is, it hasn't lasted very long, and things have settled down to what we now know as "normal" around here. It's a good thing too because Brian had to go back to work last Friday! It's hard to believe six weeks has gone by already!

In just a few short weeks, she's gone from this:

To this:

Crazy how much they change in such a short amount of time!! Now that B is back to work, we've been working on establishing a schedule and routine around here. I didn't realize how much time flies between feedings with an infant and keeping a toddler busy! Oh and did I mention we tackled the task of potty training A a couple of weeks ago?! I must say it was a surprising success! She had two accidents the first day and that's it! She's been asking to go to school for some time now and the only thing we were waiting for was her to be potty trained. Guess it's now time to seriously start looking at preschools for her. Talk about growing up too fast! Geez. I'll try to blog more now that things have started to be "normal" again but I can't promise anything! I might be too busy with these two adorable kiddos to be bothered by the computer. :)

Easter 2013

This year I feel like we celebrated Easter week as opposed to Easter Sunday!

 It started with a package in the mail from great grandma in Hawaii with a kit to dye eggs which A received a week and a half before Easter. We told her we would open it for our Easter party "next week." Now anyone who's ever had a toddler can attest that you should never really tell them anything until absolutely necessary because they don't forget stuff...especially my kid. All week she would "remind" me about her dye kit and our Easter party and the eggs we were going to color. Last Sunday we all went to Brian's baseball game and I decided to bring some plastic eggs to "hide" at the field so A would have something to do and it would give her a chance to practice before the real hunts began. She held tight to those eggs all week...which didn't help her forget about the eggs we were going to dye!

 

On Thursday her bestie Jack came over and they dyed some eggs and had their own little egg hunt inside. They had a blast and it was hilarious to watch them race and knock each other over (lovingly) to get those plastic eggs!

 

  

 

 

Of course we let them open their eggs.

They even shared a few pieces of candy with each other...

but only a few!

On Friday we drove down to SD so we could have an early Easter with my parents since we wouldn't see them on Sunday. Anayah got to be a part of the party that the daycare kids were having which she loved

and Samara got to be spoiled by papa...and Grandma and Grandpa L!

More eggs (and candy) and her second Easter basket of the week! Even Samara got a basket!

On Sunday, we went to church in the morning then headed up to LA to spend Easter with Brian's side of the family.

 

It had been a while since we last saw all of them and most of them hadn't met Samara yet so we were excited to make the drive up. Anayah had a blast playing with her cousins and scored three yes, three, more Easter baskets full of toys and candy!

By the time we got home Sunday evening we were all exhausted but blessed to have been able to see and spend time with our family and friends. Now I need to figure out how to throw away clean up the candy and Easter basket grass (which is strewn all over my house) without A getting upset! Anyone need an extra basket? Or two?

Friday Favorite

One of each this week...

♥
Happy Friday!

Newborn(ish) Pictures

These are from the newborn shoot I attempted to do three days in a row the first week we were home. Let's just say I was tired, I wasn't feeling very creative, A would not cooperate, I forgot, oh and I was recovering from having a baby. Anywhoo, I got a few that I absolutely love, but next time I think I'll have someone else take the photos...at least the first week out of the hospital.

 LOVE!

 

 One of my absolute favorites

 

 

 Love her squishy face!

Of course she was asleep when I wasn't taking pictures, but the second I started posing her and got her undressed, she was too curious to know what was going on! Silly girl. It's ok, there will be plenty more photo shoots in your future!

1 Month

So this post is almost a week overdue and there really isn't any good excuse other than I haven't had the time. I could probably find the time during the day when the girls are napping but most of the time that's when I eat lunch and sometimes nap with them. Does that make me lazy?! I suppose I could blog after I put A down for the night but that's usually when I eat dinner and spend time with B. Does that make me selfish?! Oh well. I do need to make blogging a higher priority for sure though. I documented A's first year of life so well and I want to do the same for S. Clearly I'm not off to a good start since this post is so late! Agh.

Anyway, can you believe Samara is already a month old?! So crazy right?? It's hard for me to believe it and I see her every day! She really is a good, easy going, sweet baby. The only thing I think I would "complain" about is that for a while she had her days/nights confused so she would sleep hard all day then be up hanging out after her feeds at night. She's gotten much better though and is now only getting up once during the night to feed (then going back to sleep)!

At one month you:

- are very strong! You like lifting your head up as high as you can to check things out. You also like to try and stand whenever we hold you up a bit. You might have tiny legs, but they are mighty!

- are now sleeping 4-5 hours at night, which means we get up once for a night feeding!

- are still wearing newborn clothes/diapers. Like your sister, you're still very petite.

- are a fabulous eater! You eat every 3ish hours during the day but you can chow down.

- love to be held. You would be content to be in the carrier all day long if I'd let you...or if my back wouldn't break first!

- are very easy going when it comes to putting up with your sister. I'm sure it's only a  matter of time before you two are going at it!

- are very alert and aware of what's going on around you.

 

It's hard to not compare her to Anayah but I do it often since A is the only other child I have, hence the only other experience I have to compare it to...that totally made sense in my head! I just need to learn to not compare them to each other out loud I suppose. I can't believe how much she has changed in a few short weeks...to me she looks completely different now! Everyone says she looks just like me, but I still see so much of A (as a baby) in her. It will be interesting to see how she changes in the months to come.

Samara, you are a delight and a blessing to us and we are so thankful and honored to be your parents. We love you baby girl!