My kids won't sleep

Ellis is having such a hard time learning to take naps during the day. He is very particular and likes it VERY quite so when the kids are upstairs playing, he often wakes up and won't sleep because he hears things going on.

Over the weekend, Clara did not take a nap the whole time. We would go through the motions of putting her down and she just lay awake talking to herself and listening to her fishes for about two hours! No complaining, which is good. She needs the downtime anway! She did it three days in a row and then again during the middle of the week. I don't know if this is heading down the path of no nap, I sure hope not.

Giggle giggle giggle

Ellis giggled for the first time in the last couple of days. This morning was his first real laugh. I can always get him in a pretty good mood right after he wakes up for the first time in the morning. When I am changing his diaper I'll say hi and touch his cheeks. That always gets BIG smiles. And when I kiss his cheek and neck, he laughs! It is so darn cute. I love it :)

Ellis at almost 3 months

Ellis is changing so fast it is just darn right scary. He is such a good baby though he LOVES to be held. He has not exactly fallen into a routine yet, I am waiting for that to happen. He loves to nurse and when he is done, he likes to stretch his arms. His hand still has a bit of a nervous newborn reflex to it when he does that, where it sort of vibrates slowly back and forth. I remember Clara doing that too. Ellis loves to look around and see what is going on, and often when there is something interesting going on, it causes lots of smiles!

Clara is more and more interactive each day. She has such an opinion on things it is funny. You can really have a conversation with her now. It might be about something little like if she likes a certain food or not but it is a lot different than it was a few months ago. You can really see her brain working!

Oh my how we grow

Ellis is growing so fast. I blink my eyes, and all of a sudden he has grown out of his 0-3 clothes and I have to go to the store and get him a whole new wardrobe of 3-6. And he is only 2 months and 2 weeks old! He is really beginning to interact with us, smiles when you say hi. He even has this sound that sounds just like "Hi". His happy place is on his changing "pad" in the spare bedroom downstairs. After you change his diaper, he is all smiles. And he has such a HUGE big smile that just takes over his whole face. He is so sweet! He already has me wrapped around his little finger. He has been sleeping OK by himself at night in his bassinett. But during the day it is still a struggle, he really likes his swing but I don't want him getting too used to it! At night, he wakes from 2-4 times. A lot for his age I think but he falls back asleep quickly when I nurse him.

I have been trying to do tummy time with him every day at least for a little while. He is getting better at it but is often not a big fan of it!

Clara is getting older and older every day. She basically can do the whole alphabet on her own and sing "Twinkle Twinkle" from start to finish on her own. We started to let her watch television. Right now, the big hit is "Frosty the Snowman". She can watch it over and over again if we let her!

Today for breakfast, for the first time, she asked for something that was not right in front of her or something that she did not have recently. I don't even remember the last time she had eggs for breakfast but she asked for them and ate them! I don't mind making if she actually EATS it! Her gums are swollen today and I think that she is getting her two year molars.

Ellis - first three weeks

Ellis is now three weeks old. He is doing pretty well though I do spend the nights sleeping with him and I am hoping that ends soon! His nickname is Angry Man though. When he is unhappy, he tells us LOAD AND CLEAR. He goes from 0-60 in less than one second. He does love to be held though and it is hard to argue with that because he cuddles up close to you.

Wearing him the sling has helped a lot. Giving me some hands to have free to do things around the house. Clara seems to be adjusting OK. She has been asking repeatedly for Mommy and Daddy hugs so she is a little bit starved for attention. I feel bad for her sometimes but when I am nursing Ellis and she is trying to sit in my lap, it makes it a little hard.

Ellis is almost in 0-3 clothes. The one pieces work well but the two piecer newborn sizes still fit him well. It is just a matter of how to keep his socks on! I looked back at Clara's baby book and he is about a week ahead of her on that.

I think that Ellis smiled at me today. I was talking to him while he was awake and I thought I saw a fleeting smile! It is so hard to tell because he does it in his sleep so often. They are really so sweet when they do that.

He still has his quivering lip and when he stretches, his hands still twitch. I forgot how sweet that is, you forget about all those newborn quirks until they are right in front of your face. A lot of the times, he makes faces that remind me so much of Clara. He purses his lips like Clara and it is amazing how much they look alike when they do things like that.

Ellis Stats and his first week

Ellis was born 6 lbs 15 ounces, 20 3/4 inches long at 5:39 PM on 10/3/06. When we left the hospital, he weighed 6 lbs 12 ounces and was back up to 6 lbs 13 1/2 ounces at his first doctors appointment when he was 5 days old. We had to go back to the hospital that day to get his bili test done because the doctor thought he looked a little yellow. Fortunately, Ellis was OK and no more of those tests! They are not fun to deal with.

Things are going well. Clara has been an absolute wonder adjusting, I think it helps that we have people around specifically for her. In the last two days, she has shown interest in the baby. Asking to see the baby and even kissed him a few times. I do miss hanging out with her! I got to spend some time with her playing with the camera this morning which was fun. Her new game, which is actually a rather annoying but sweet one is, she wants to see herself on the camera but has no patience to let me take the picture first. So as soon as the camera comes out, she says, "I see Clara?" over and over again and gets upset if you try to take the picture first to show her! This morning, she was asking to see baby on the camera. It is funny because she knows who Ellis is, that Ellis is his name, but she only calls him baby and refuses to say his name. She has said it a few times and when Heather K. asked her who Ellis is, she looked at the baby but still did not say his name. It will be interesting when it is going to just be the three of us hanging out. Thanks goodness I have some time before that.

At night, Ellis does not like to sleep by himself. It is odd because he will do it during the day as he is right now. But at night, he often fusses unless I hold him. So we have been sleeping on the couch together, just as I did with Clara. I am not really sure what to do about this situation because I know it is not the safest but it sort of works for us.

For the most part, Ellis is a great baby. Only cries when he has a reason. He loves to look around when he is awake and reminds me of Clara so much. A lot of his facial expressions are EXACTLY the same as Clara made. There is this one face where his lips are pursed and I swear he looks exactly like Clara because she used to do that face all the time. He has started to smile in his sleep, that phase where he is sort of sleeping but sort of not and a huge smile comes over his face. He even laughed in his sleep once already. Ellis has this great sad face too. Weird to say so but his eyes frown before he cries.

L & D of Ellis Matthew Owen

I was told the Thursday before my 39 weeks that we were going to deliver on 10/3 if I did not go into labor on my own. At that doctors appointment, I was 1-2 cm so the goal for the weekend was to make that a little better so I did not have to go in to the hospital on 10/2 for Cervidal (mostly because it did nothing for me when I had Clara!). At my doctor's appointment on Monday, I was 2-3 and they decided to have me come in on Tuesday (which is a good thing since I was at the hospital with Heather all day Monday since she had a timely bleed). Tuesday morning, they called at 6 AM and told us to call them at 8 since they were a little busy and wanted to wait to induce me. At 7:15, we got another call and we were told to come in! We got out of bed, and headed to the hospital.

We arrived to a slow start. They did not start me on pitocin until about 10:30 and turned it up. I was already having my own contractions but these brought them to about 3-4 m minutes apart. We watched a DVD while they got all my drips in order (insulin, sugar, pitocin, iv) and all of a sudden at around noon, my water bag broked on it's own! It was a strange feeling because I was not expecting it at all. That was good news for me though because it was one less thing the doctors had to do for me.

Shortly after that, the contractions starting getting pretty bad. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people at the same time asking for an epidural so I had to wait for over an hour and half for one. They had to call a second doctor in to do the floor for epidurals since there was such a demand. I got that second doctor and by the time he came in at 2:30 I was in a LOT of pain (and about 5 CM) so he gave me an epidural AND a spinal. The spinal kicked in right away and I was pain free for about an hour or two. Shortly after THAT, I started to feel the contractions again. We did a boost of the epidural twice but my pain was multiplying more than that so I did not feel it. They checked me again (I would say sometime before 4) and I was 8 cm and shortly after that I was 9. I was feeling so much pressure though, they decided that I should start to push. We did that with the nurse and after pushing for a while, the called the doctor who told me to STOP pushing because he was delivering another baby and needed to be there when I got the baby out. That was probably one of the most painful and awful experiences of my life, having those full on contractions and not being able to push. We waited for far too long, maybe about 40 minutes and finally they let me push. I probably had to push for another 20-30 minutes (for a total of an hour and ten) and he came out! The doctor said he is a star gazer, facing the wrong way which is why the delivery was so awful. I could feel almost all of it. When they were going to make the cut, they asked me if I could feel the knife and I could so they had to give me a local. And I still felt it when he cut. I must say, Clara's was a walk in the park compared to this delivery. I was rather immune to what was going on "down there" for her delivery.

But in return, I got a perfect baby boy! You could not ask for anything better.

Play da-doh

Clara LOVES play doh. I started playing it with her when we started the art class because it was the first time she was exposed to it. She LOVES it. She asks for it by saying, "Play Da-Doh?". She likes to ask for specific things to be made, like a dog, or a horsey, or a fishy. She likes to tell you to roll out the dough. Sometimes she has a hard time letting you roll out the dough though since she does not want to let go of any of her dough prizes that she has accumulated. Unfortunately, the carpet underneath her table is collecting some crusty playdoh. Lucky for her, we are removing this carpet soon!

Towel?

I went to get Clara out of bed today and she was hugging a TOWEL! She had grabbed it out of the dirty laundry that is next to her crib and was cuddling with it. I am not sure if she did it late last night or this morning. She is looney that baby!

No more whining PLEASE

Clara has been whining a LOT lately. I am trying to teach her that her first instinct should not be to whine but to ask nicely. She listens... sometimes. I think her cuspids are bothering her as they come in because she has been a little cranky lately. Yesterday, she threw her first BIG fit for Heather. It was pretty funny because normally I am the only one who gets them. I was downstairs listening to the whole thing. I am not sure what started it, I think it was something like she did not want to share with Preston. She started to cry and Heather could not do much to calm her down. She finally did after a few minutes only because Monty came into the room and meowed, most likely to tell her, KEEP IT DOWN! Too funny.

Da Cat Hat

Clara's new favorite book is The Cat and The Hat. She asks for it specifically at book time, "Da Cat Hat?". Sometimes she will walk over and get the book and bring it to you. She is pretty particular about what books you read to her! I am just glad that she still loves book time with her Daddy at night.

Grandpa was just in town for a week helping with getting things ready for the nursery and miscellaneous things around the house. Clara LOVES her Grandpa. She would follow him around the house as he is trying to work saying, "Grandpa! Grandpa! Grandpa! Grandpa!" over and over and over again. One morning, she got so upset as he worked around the house and she could not follow him that we had to leave because she started to cry each time she saw him and he was too busy tasking to stop and play!

We got a lot done including reorganizing the garage, which was quite a feat! For the nursery, we painted a bookshelf we had in the garage and Matt's old changing table for the new room. Recycling at it's best.

Singing along

Clara really likes it when I sing to her. Current favorite are Twinkle, Twinkle, ABCs, and the wheels on the bus. When I sing Twinkle, Twinkle, she says the twinkle part, How I wonder, Up above and diamond. She definitely likes to sing along. She LOVES the beep beep beep part of wheels on the bus. It is so funny. Then she will say TOWN at the end of each part.

Another quirk I wanted to note of hers is something she has been doing for a long time but I just do not want to forget about it. When she is tired, she starts playing with her ears. She basically takes her pointer finger and plays with the top part of her ear. She sort of lines it with her finger. It is a telltale sign of when she is tired. She was doing it today at lunch. I took her and Katlyn to the Rainforst Cafe and she was pretty tired before she was eating. She started to yawn and lined her ear. She was a little afraid of the place. There was a tiger there that would randomly roar and it made her nervous. Plus, every now and then, there would be a thunder and lightening. She liked to look at the fishies but she was a little young for it. She slammed her Mac and cheese (or as she says, Mac cheese). She LOVED it. Thank goodness her appetite is back. She ate dinner last night and breakfast and lunch today. And her fever is practically gone. This morning she said Caca forehead better, Caca teeth better. She also has these two sores on her chin that sort of look like zits. She said Caca whiskers better. She is so funny sometimes.

My sick baby

Clara has gingivostomatitis which is a big word for swollen gums and general unhappiness. She has had a high fever for the past 5 days and I took her to the doctor on Monday for some help! She is so miserable. It hurts to eat and she often just wakes up crying from what I am certain is from being in pain. I feel so bad. Though I am so tired and a bit miserable myself since I get so tired by the end of the day carrying this big belly around and caring for her. Heather is in Jamaica this week so no reprieve!

LONG car trip

We just got back Rochester, a trip we decided to DRIVE in our new minivan. Clara was a perfect angel on the drive out there. She did so well. Mostly because she got to watch TV for the first time. She LOVES "Finding Nemo" and asked for it each time we sat in the car. Neno Neno Neno! She LOVED it. We did not even have to have the sound on for her, she just watched the fish swim around.

The only problems we had on the trip besides being in non-baby proofed houses was the sleeping situation. Right now, Clara does not do too well when she is sleeping in the same room as us. She wakes up in the middle of the night, sees us and thinks it is time to play! It started when we were staying at the Jenkins' place. Clara woke up in the middle of the night crying and I picked her up because she was crying and I did not want her to wake anyone else up. I brought her into bed with us and she did not lay down. She pretty much labeled all the parts of our bodies she knows and thought it was play time! I brought her downstairs and we sat in a chair for 2 hours where she eventually fell asleep in my arms and only slept for about two hours. It was pretty brutal. She did it again when we were in Canandaigua for our "vacation". We were in the same room and we woke up to Clara saying "Daddy hug" around 2 AM.

Other than those issues, Clara had a lot of fun. We had Grandpa's retirement party, Clara got to go on a museum trip and Grandma and Grandpa and we went on our first lake vacation with Clara. Clara LOVED playing at the beach and was so exhausted from it, she slept for about 4 hours!

ABCs and 1 to 10

Clara is talking SO MUCH now. There is basically no word that she is willing to conquer and she learned most of her ABCs and can recite them mostly. She tends to do ABCDFGHIKPRSTUVWXYZ. She can also do 1-10 perfectly all on her own. I had no idea she would pick it up so quickly. She actually wanted to learn it and asks me to sing the alphabet son all the time. We were in Rochester and she said 1-10 in front of practically everyone. Everyone was so impressed!

Molars are IN!

After many many many months of thinking they are coming in, they are officially in and Clara has been SUPER cranky over how much it has been hurting her. So much so, that sometimes she gets so upset, she won't even open her mouth for Tylenol. She has had her hand in her mouth constantly for the last week. The first "real" one to come in is her left bottom one. I thought the top ones were going to break first but they half broke through and have stayed like that for a while now. That bottom one is completely through now and the one on the left hand side is sure to follow soon. These one year molars are a disaster! I can't even imagine how uncomfortable it is for her. The poor thing. She sure has been a hand ful lately. She says No way too often now. You ask her anything, even if she wants it and her first reaction is to say No. It is quite lovely really.

Talking in her sleep

Matt and I were sitting downstairs watching television and over the monitor we heard Clara talking. I paused the TV and I did hear the last word she said. It was bubbles. We think she was talking in her sleep! How funny is that?!?

CA-CA

Clara calls herself Ca-ca. It is actually pretty funny. The funniest things she says is when she poops. She will say Ca-ca Poo poo! :)

Today we were sitting playing with Legos and she was handing Legos to Matt and I saying Mommy, Dadddy, Ca-ca as she passed out the Legos.

The other funny thing she does is when you look in her diaper to see if she pooped and she had not, she will say, No no poo poo.

Talk-ity talk talk talk

Clara is talking A LOT! She has a lot of words, so many I can't even count and she surprises me all the time about what she knows how to say. What I find very sweet at this age are the words she sort of does not get 100% or changes to baby-talk. I think one of my favorites right now is when she wants to get in something. Waggy In-y. Is in the wagon. For the most part though she uses the words completely. Clara is sick right now :(. She has a bit of a fever and a runny nose. This morning when I got her up, she said Nose, mommy, nose telling me that her nose was stuffy. After her bath this evening, she wanted a hug and came up to me saying hug mommy hug. Right now she is saying no a lot but she says it so well. She says no no mommy no no. I think she says no whenever she means yes. She just likes to excercise her right to say no. I sort of liked it better when she was saying yes all the time!

Want

Clara is really talking. She is so good about saying please when she wants something, though she still has to be egged on to say Thank You. The funniest thing she does lately is if she asks for something and you don't know what she is saying, I usually ask her "What do you want?". Her answer is usually, "Want".