x and ix

Xaris loves her sister.

Sometimes a little too much--she gets so excited and squeezes a little too hard. But with a baby sister this cute, how can you help from getting a little squeezy-happy?

Ilane is doing well, as far as I remember, just about everything a new baby is supposed to do. Although she is quite different from Xaris.

Could be just me, but it seems X was more active and awake at 3 weeks than IX is at 6 weeks...even the pictures seem to demonstrate it! But I really don't mind--IX is a sleeper. I like it. X is not a horrible sleeper--I've never been at a point of feeling desperately sleep deprived, just tired. But she's definitely not a great sleeper, and we're still working on it (she doesn't consistently sleep through the night yet, and many evenings I have to rock her to sleep, she won't go to sleep on her own). This was just a few nights ago--I was up nursing Ilane and heard breathing from the other side of the room...it wasn't Ricardo and wasn't coming from the monitor for Xaris' room, so I got up and looked--Xaris had apparently come into our room sometime in the night, but instead of climbing into bed with us, or waking me up, she went around the far side and curled up on the floor...?? I carried her back to her bed, she didn't even wake up. But I got a picture first.

IX--so far, is a GOOD sleeper. In fact, I have to set alarms every night so I wake up to wake her up to feed her. She won't wake up to eat, and the pediatrician said for the first several weeks we need to make sure she eats every 3-4 hours (I stretched it sometimes...4.5 or more). I hope it lasts--so that when I DON'T have to set an alarm and wake her up to eat, she'll sleep the whole night through?? Wouldn't that be incredible? (I'm in awe because I've not had that experience yet!) The only problem is that she is difficult to wake up. I have to be mean, rubbing and patting and kisses turn into poking and prodding her feet, changing her diaper (cold wipes on a warm bum should do it, right? nope....so a cold wipe on her neck? nope....) and sometimes after all that effort to wake her up, she'll think it's time to be up for awhile, and doesn't go right back to sleep after nursing.

Sometimes I see a little bit of X in IX--but not often. People say that she favors her big sister, but I just don't agree--I don't see it! However, I don't argue with them (much).

Ilane newborn picture

Xaris newborn picture

Xaris got a wonderful big-sister gift from my 3rd and 4th grade teacher--a ceramic tea set in a darling wicker picnic basket! This is her playing pretend "tea" right after she opened it up...but we've had many real tea parties since!!

California

We had a great trip!

We went to Long Beach October 6th-10th, and celebrated my mom's birthday, took X to Disneyland, and cheered Ricardo, my sisters, and my mom on in the Long Beach Half Marathon. We brought the video camera instead of our regular camera, so we ended up with very few pictures. Maybe my sisters got some good ones to share :)

Here are some iphone shots from the trip.

happiest place on earth!

you wouldn't know it from our girl though...she cried on the few rides we took her on. She did like playing in the tree houses and playground areas though. And seeing the characters. And getting super spoiled by her aunts and uncles and gramama!

Train ride with gramama. It wasn't too traumatic--until they hit the tunnels.

She didn't really adapt to the time change well--and we didn't do a great job at getting good, regular naps in. So on half marathon day she was up at 5:30am and cranky as could be! We filled the time by ripping apart cereal boxes to make cardboard signs to hold for our runners.

AND...Xaris got this beautiful quilt made for her by her great-aunt Karyn! She loves it!! It's absolutely stunning!

ilane did just fine too--lots of sleeping and eating and her first diaper blowout (for her papa--I was in the store!) and lots of snuggles from family. We miss them!