Out and About

With every day that goes by, life as a family of four is beginning to seem more normal.  It already feels like I was pregnant ages ago.  Those little kicks and punches that I felt in my stomach are becoming distant memories.  The hiccups that I used to feel after almost every meal are now Jack's hiccups.  They are just as strong and last for just as long, but they are on the outside now, and belong to our son.  When I think back, I still can't believe he was the baby inside me for nine months.  He's the one we saw on the ultrasound pictures, giving us a "thumbs up" early on.  Jack is the one who I was doing handstands for in the pool, while 8 months pregnant, trying to coax him to flip head down.  He's the one who sounded false labor alarm bells a couple of days before his due date, and then proceeded to hibernate for another 10 days.  Jack had a party in my stomach every night from 9-10pm, a trend which he continued during his first few weeks of life.  The party just became a lot louder after October 11th.  Pregnancy never ceases to amaze me--how amazing is it that you can grow a human being?

Jack had his two month check up at the doctor last week and he isn't really a "little" baby any more.  He weighed 13 lbs and was 24 inches long.  We try not to compare Lilly and Jack, but in this case, it's hard not to.  Lilly was 13 lbs, 9 oz at 6 months.  He's a big boy!  His favorite activity at the moment is lying on the ground, kicking his legs and waving his arms while staring at the Christmas tree lights.  This provides endless entertainment.  It is hard to imagine life without Jack, even though he has only been a part of our lives for 10 weeks.  We've started to get our little routines back, venturing out to the library, for walks, to the children's museum, Trader Joe's, and this morning we tried out tumble time at a local YMCA--it was Lilly's idea of heaven.  Free play for two hours, complete with trampolines, balance beams, lots of soft mats for tumbling on and uneven bars.  Actually, her Uncle Joef might enjoy this as well, although I was told the ideal age was 1.5-4.  Jack just comes along for the ride, either sleeping in a sling or the moby wrap, or hanging out in his car seat.

Concentrating on the trampoline

This is how we've been grocery shopping--Jack is in his carseat in the back of the cart and Lilly rides on the end.  She loves it!

Frosty, Santa and the Gingerbread Man were all at the Children's Museum yesterday.  Lilly gave Frosty a hug, danced with the Gingerbread Man and when Santa asked her if she wanted to sit on his lap, she said, "no thank you, I'm fine down here." 

 

Jack's naps are becoming more regular and he is sleeping for longer stretches at night, which means that I don't feel like I have to spend every free second I have sleeping.  I've started reading again...knitting a little bit...and I feel like I even have time to update my blog now!  We're adjusting to our new "normal."  Jack has become a part of everyone's daily life.  Lilly has started having conversations with him.  Last week, when she was splashing around in the bath, I went in to tell her to keep the water in the bath instead of all over the floor.  When I left the bathroom, I heard her talking to Jack.  About me.  Something along the lines of, "and Mum said that I can't splash on the floor but I want to splash on the floor and I'm not going to get out the bath and I'm not allowed to splash..."  Lilly talks and talks and talks, and when I went in to check on her again, she told me that she wasn't talking to me; she was talking to Jack.  And so it begins.  Poor Jack has no idea what he is in for.

Lilly, we've discovered, is very inquisitive by nature.  I have a feeling all little ones are, but we are experiencing first hand just how inquisitive she is.  While Ellie was here, Lilly came out of the bathroom, looking like this:

We noticed that Lilly had been too quiet and went in to the bathroom where Ellie discovered her mascara open, mascara all over Lilly's eye and blush all over her cheeks.  Lilly kept telling us she was just making herself beautiful, so we let her walk around with what appeared to be a black eye for the rest of evening while she looked in the mirror every few minutes calling her makeup beautiful.

Lilly has also taken to dressing herself.  One of her favorite nap time activities is changing all her clothes.  Sometimes, she changes her clothes, gets back into bed and goes to sleep.  Other times, the sleeping part doesn't happen.  This is what emerged after a real nap (complete with a sleep) this weekend:

In case you didn't guess, she picked out her entire outfit herself.  Watermelon hat, pajama top (that she swears is Lucas' pajama top, but that's another story for another time), her favorite heart warm pants, and rain boots.  And she couldn't have been prouder.

This is what happens when Lilly changes her clothes instead of napping, or she decides that she's going to sing songs and read books for 2 hours rather than sleep.

Ellie and I took the little ones for a walk one day after rest time to get a few things from the grocery store, and found both Jack and Lilly sound asleep when we returned home.  I can't even remember the last time Lilly fell asleep in her stroller.  I think it was at the Ironman, around 11:00 at night.  This was one tired little girl.

 Here are some of my favorite moments from the past week:

Lilly lying on her tummy because Jack was lying on his.  And then, she complimented him for holding his head up.

Jack found his hand this week.  He loves it, and makes the best slurping noises when it's in his mouth.  

Lilly doing squats when we were out for a walk.  She learned how to do them when I was pregnant and Jack flipped head down...and we did A LOT of squats to keep him that way.  Lilly still loves doing them.