Poor Doogan

Here's a conversation Aria and I had yesterday morning after Emmett slept 11.5 hours:

goofydaddy: hey Aria, guess what?
Aria: what?
goofydaddy: Emmett didn't wake up at all last night! Mommy got to sleep lots!
Aria: WOW! ...I don't sleep lots.
goofydaddy: oh? you wake up in the middle of the night?
Aria: yeah.
goofydaddy: we don't hear you on the monitor, what do you do when you wake up in the middle of the night?
Aria: I twirl Doogan's ribbon! (she throws in a quick twirl to illustrate and giggles)

I kinda believed her, but now I really do, because she woke up last night at 3am screaming for me. When I went in, I asked what was wrong. She started laughing that nervous laugh she does when all is not quite right, and held her hand out. It was too dark to see, and then she said "Doogan's ribbon fell off! I need a better sleep buddy!" I hugged her, we laughed a bit, I took the ribbon, gave her another stuffed animal, and she hugged it along with Doogan and went back to sleep.

This morning, Dana tied another bow from some ribbon we have, and I showed it to Aria when she woke up. she got a kick out of seeing it, and understood when I said that I didn't know how to attach it to Doogan. Occasionally throughout the morning, Aria would go to twirl Doogan's ribbon out of habit, and when she would only feel the little string that's still attached, she would laugh hysterically, and remind me that "when mommy picks me up from school, she's going to put Doogan's new ribbon on."

Poor Doogan! he's been through a lot!

Emmett is 5 months old today!

Emmett is a growing boy! I'm documenting some things that are happening below so we don't have to remember...I barely remember yesterday!

He's been home with Daddy for just over a month now while I've been working. I'm usually on the road before the kids wake up. Things are going well and Emmett's been relatively easy to take care of in the morning while Kevin gets Aria ready for school and drops her off. He's not only a goofydaddy, he's a super daddy because he manages to get up early to do his p90x workouts and work 20hrs part-time during naps and in the evening. I pick Aria up by 4:00 so I can get home and spend time with them both before bedtime around 7:30.

Emmett's eating well - thankfully I can provide for him with very little supplementing with formula. He takes 4 bottles that total about 30oz!

He's starting to sleep better and better at night. Since about 3 months he's been great about staying in his crib for about 11 hours (no eating or having to take him out), but there was a lot of waking and needing the pacifier between 1AM-7AM. Recently he's got into the groove of two good naps in the morning/afternoon and has been able to stay awake from 3PM-7:30! I think this is the reason the nights are starting to go better - he's just so exhausted! Last night he slept 11.5 hrs straight with minimal stirring for the very first time. YAY BUDDY!

He currently has 2 teeth that are about halfway in on the bottom. He's drooling A LOT again so I wouldn't be suprised if we see more in the near future.

At about 3 months we started mixing cloth diapers in and it's been going well. Now our routine is to use Nature Babycare diapers until we get a major blowout and then we start using the cloth for the next day or two. We always use the paper diapers at night. We are waiting until things are a little more solid to use cloth continuously like we did for Aria starting at 8 months until 18 months (when she went to school).

Emmett is stubborn in the rolling department. We've caught him rolling to his side a couple times. He even got stuck on his side a week ago! He just likes his back and is content to stay there for now. When we put him on his stomach he quickly moves his arms to his sides and balances on is tummy. He's so silly!

We let him try some cereal/milk a couple times last week and he lapped it up ok. We aren't too serious about spoon feeding yet. I'm hoping to give it more attention over the holidays.

Overall he's a pretty happy boy. He loves watching me shake my head like a muppet - it gets a smile every time! For a while I was the only one to get giggles out of him, but Daddy is falling into his goofydaddy role again and Emmett is responding nicely. He is so entertained by watching his big sister. We all definitely love having him around :-)

His arms are on the way to his sides!

Aria sings an aria!

I was going through some old pictures and came across this video. Kevin and I cracked up and watched it about 10 times. The video is from this past Easter 2009 (you can even see my Emmett belly).

For your viewing pleasure...

update: here's what she's singing...
...on tree
We're bangin on Pop-Pop's tree
we need a lot of help
Mommmmmy we're bangin on the treeeeeeee
Mommy... bang... inon... tha... tree
we'rebanginonthatree.

Following in his sister's...teeth marks!

We've had a drooly, cranky boy on our hands the past week and this weekend we discovered why. Emmett's getting his 1st tooth! He's right on par with his sister at 4 months.

I won't say how many pictures I took to get this one. Haha! :-)

Goofydaddy update: as you can see if you click the picture and zoom up, the second tooth is trying to push through as well. this photo was taken 4 days after the first tooth finally cut through.

We love these guys!

Lean on me!

Aria picked these jammies out to wear so she could match her baby brother!

Back to work

The end of last week I returned to work. After being home for almost 4 months I was starting to get used to it. But, I have to do what I have to do for my family. I'm pretty lucky to have a husband that has volunteered to stay home again (AND work part-time)! It makes it SOOOO much easier to go back.

Things are going pretty well at work. It was a little funny getting into work last week to find out my computer wouldn't start up. It made me nervous, but thankfully I was given a new computer and was back up and running! My computer apparently took the break from work literally.

Aria's starting to readjust to me not being around in the mornings again. Tonight when I put her to bed she sweetly said to me, "when I wake up in the morning you will have cereal with me?" So sweet, but it almost gave me a little knot in my throat! Kevin said she's been real good the past couple mornings with him. Usually when I'm around, she's all about Mommy and doesn't do well with Daddy's directions. I am happy that she's listening to Daddy without me there. And she is continuing to be very patient while Kevin takes care of Emmett's needs.

Emmett seems to care less if I'm here or not. Haha. With Aria around Kevin really hasn't spent a whole lot of time with Emmett while I was home. It's fun for me to see Kevin really starting to connect with him during the days alone with him.

Halloween 09

Last weekend we went to Grandma & Grandpa's house and Aria went trick-or-treating inside. What's behind this door?

Silly daddy (crazy toothbrush-hand-guy) behind this door. Oh! He has stickers!
Emmett slept through it all.
Aria is looking at the loot with Grandpa.

Yesterday we did pumpkins. Aria spent at least 30 min painting this pumpkin.

Now on to the real deal. She loved the mess!

The final product...Mommy and Daddy got creative!

By this evening we had 3 ladybugs in the house, including Doogan!

Family picture before Aria headed out.

She had a great time! She enjoyed playing with her friend Trinity the most. Her family came over for dinner and trick-or-treating. They were so funny together.

story time!

Aria decided to tell a story based on the many little disney princess books she got for her birthday. Her are the translated stories...

Story one:
"Once upon a time, there was that girl in that castle. The Beast was joining him and her in dining room castle. And one day, the king said, wicked king said, 'Don't get that mirror broke!' The mirror said 'Buenos Dias'."

Story two:
"Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Princess King. And one day, she told the mirror, and she said 'now listen here guy!' said 'Hello', and 'how how ho.'

She combined parts from Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, The Lorax, and Bear's New Friend, not to mention spanish class at school.

Giggles!

Emmett has a new trick. He can giggle now!

It all just tuckered him out. This was only a little while later. He passed out!

gruvulous glove

While I was nursing Emmett this afternoon, I had Aria* up at the table painting to keep her occupied. I could see her, but I couldn't tell exactly what she was doing. I heard her talking about needing more paint and some babble about the gruvulous glove (from the Lorax)**.

This isn't the exact picture of the gruvulous glove, but it's close. Basically it's a green glove.

Aria's interpretation of the gruvulous glove

Her beautiful painting

*Aria has been home with me all week because she got head lice from school. It hasn't been fun, but we are getting through it. I am enjoying the time with her since I'm going back to work in two weeks. I've had help, but I've also had lot of time alone with her and Emmett and I'm getting the hang of juggling both of them.

** Kevin's favorite book to read at Aria's bedtime is the Lorax. Aria always picks up on little details about everything. There is one single line that talks about the Once-Ler's "gruvulous glove" and it stuck in her little head. The line goes like this..."And he hides what you've paid him away in his snuvv, his strange, secret hole in his gruvulous glove."

Emmett's 3 months old! (I'm sneaking him into the post again)

Emmett

A friend recently came over to take pictures of Emmett and she did a wonderful job. Here are a couple of the shots! THANKS BRYN!

Aria is 3!

Happy Third Birthday, Aria!

Last weekend she had a party with some friends at a moonbounce place. She had a GREAT time.

We had a friend make these beautiful cupcakes.

Aria and her best bud, Trinity had fun playing with the balloons in the wind before we headed home.

Aria was so wired from the excitement of the day (and sugar). She and Aunt Jennine had so much fun playing in the closet. They were hiding from the monsters (Grammy and Daddy).

The fun continues today on her actual birthday. Grandma and Grandpa are here and we'll have a mini celebration after she gets home from school.

Our Packrat

Aria has always liked to collect things. Since Emmett has arrived, she has taken it to a new level. She has become a packrat! We've documented a couple of her masterpieces below. She does this at least once a day and it's a pain to clean up! Most of the objects consist of Emmett's blankets and toys which she's taken possession of.

I had to sneak in a recent picture of Emmett. Note that he's using his blanket. Generally, as soon as I pick him up, Aria grabs it and stashes it in one of her piles.

It happened.

Aria's most favorite lovey is Doogan the bear. She's loved him since she was 6 months old. It happened...he finally lost his ribbon on his neck. She twirls and plays with his ribbon constantly - in bed, in the car...all the time. A quick surgery took place and he's as good as new! I was nervous that Aria would reject the new ribbon, but she approves! This is not the first surgery for Doogan either. He's had a tagectomy, an accidental tracheotomy, and a restuffing.

The old ribbon in its tattered glory

Doogan with his shiny new ribbon!

1st Day of Preschool

Today Aria started in her new preschool class (no more toddler class). We went to an orientation yesterday and it went great. She was a little apprehensive about the new classroom at first, but as soon as we started exploring she quickly got excited. Her favorite thing so far is the "magnet work*". This morning she told us that when she got to school that was the first thing she was going to do. Kevin dropped her off and she was good. And the very first thing she did...magnet work!

*At her montessori school they call all the learning activities "work". It cracks me up.

Aria and Emmett

Aria loves her baby brother, and we like to think he loves her. He definitely likes to hold her hand, and kick her when she gets too close to his feet!

Aria has been a big help, she gets diapers ready (sometimes pulling the tabs completely off), and throws away dirty diapers (though the "ba-splosions" as she calls them get thrown away by mommy or daddy). Aria says Emmett is "crying for his big sister Aria" whenever he is cranky.

Emmett kept leaning into Aria and grabbing at her. She thought it was funny.

"Baby brother is HEAVY!"

Emmett coming up with a devious plan...

Mommy's Free!

Finally, after two weeks of trying and TRYING to get Emmett to take a bottle we had success tonight. This was encouraging after a long day of hardly any sleep (only 2hrs). He was so fussy and just wouldn't stay asleep! This is not usual for him. I even pulled out every type of pacifier I could find to see if that would settle him down. He kept the paci in his mouth for more than 10 secs today as well! I think this was the training for the main event this evening. He took a whole 6.5 oz of mommy's milk provided by daddy via the bottle :-)

Oh the possibilities this brings me. It was really making me worry that he wasn't taking the bottle. Yay Emmett - this made up for the bad day!

A preschooler's nightmare

Aria woke up this morning screaming. Kevin entered the room and asked what her nightmare was about. Aria responded:

"We were getting eggs and they kept taking them out of our hands and putting them in the hole. We couldn't buy the eggs."

Weekend Outings

The last three weekends we’ve tried our best to make sure to get out with both kids. It’s been tricky, but we’ve had a lot of fun. Three weekends ago we went to Cabin John Park where Aria rode the train and played in the park.

Mommy's turn!

Daddy's turn!

The next weekend we ventured out to Great Country Farm to play and pick peaches/blackberries. Aria was excellent at finding the ripe blackberries (and only eating half of what she picked).


This past weekend we went to Reston’s Farmers Market to walk around and we picked up some fresh veggies!

Emmett mostly sleeps when we are out. He definitely likes all the motion.

I have been approaching these outings like a challenge. Each one had it's difficult times, but we need this training to get the hang of it! In no time we’ll be old pros.

Also, Emmett and I took a little adventure together last week to meet up with my Grandma for a birthday lunch. He was so good and everything went well (minus the weird waiter that kissed Emmett – poor thing was only 4 weeks old and he could do without the cooties).

4 generations

2 week checkup for Emmett and new shoes for Aria

Emmett had his 2 week appt today, and he's doing just great (like we needed a Dr's opinion). His weights have been:
8lbs 5oz at birth,
7lbs 13oz a day and a half later,
8lbs 2oz at his 4 day appt
9lbs 4oz today at 15 days old
His height matched percentage-wise, so I'd say he's growing at a nice rate!

Earlier this week, Grandma came to visit and help out. She and I picked Aria up from school on Wednesday and went to the mall to get her new shoes. She has finally outgrown her size 7 shoes (thanks Paige). Aria was very attached to her pink shoes, so we found a very similar pair. it was a bit difficult to get her out of the old ones and measured, but once the new shoes were on, she was happy and hopping (we showed her the air pockets in the heel, and told her they helped her jump).

and of course, what trip would be complete without a ride on the carousel or train?
Thanks Grandma! Aria can't wait to see you and Grandpa again on Sunday!

One Lovely Blog Award

Thanks for the award Martina (her blog is here)! ooh so perty:


The rules of the “One Lovely Blog Award” are:
Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 15 (yeah right) other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.* Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
*I don't discover blogs.

so I'm not even gonna go listing the blogs here, they're over on the right side banner. all 7 of em. those are the only blogs i ever go to.