two

Our sweet mellow girl is 2 months old! She is actually now 2.5 months old, but this picture was taken on the correct day. We had internet issues for a few weeks, but Ricardo fixed it a few days ago so now I have many many blogs to post and photos to upload!

Here's ix's two month picture (I'm still searching for her one month...I know we took it because I remember what kind of cupcakes I made for her one monthiversary). She is almost smiling, despite running a fever after her first round of immunizations earlier that day.

She has been a fairly easy and happy baby. She seems slightly more readily available with smiles than X was as an infant...Xaris was very happy and she smiled a lot, but it seemed we had to work to get the smiles...or earn them by doing a lot of goofy stuff (faces, sounds, etc). With IX all you have to do is make eye contact. Or talk with her. Or smile at her.

She loves (or tolerates?) her big sister who showers her with overabundant and overenergetic love and attention. She'll patiently wait her turn and watch when I'm reading to Xaris at night, or when I need to "help" Xaris go to sleep. She even tolerates a mama and big sister who like matching pj's and outfits: 2 girls is fun! Usually Xaris will grab both sets of pajamas when she chooses hers, so they are matching nearly every night.

We love having two girls!

two part two

IX's two month well-check went just fine. We really like our pediatrician.

ilane measured 22.75 inches (65th %)

weighed in at 10.145 lbs (25th %)

head circumference: 15 in. (25th %)

She is growing well and possibly a bit bigger than her sister was at this age! She definitely seems a little chunkier :)

Chilling out waiting for her shots...

Xaris was holding her hand--but I like this picture because it looks like Xaris is pulling her off the table!

CHINS! Look at this beautiful chunk!

(although I doubt she has anything on yours Keren!)

a compliment?

In X-language these days, everything is a comparison.

Something is "volando como pajarito" (flying like a bird), or "llorando como ilane" (crying like ilane) or "grande como un arbol" (big like a tree).

A few days ago she found a plastic penguin (I think it was a Happy Meal toy??) that she hadn't seen in a long time got really excited about it. The wings (flippers?) are pressed together in the front of the body. I asked her about it and she said "Penguino esta orando como mama!" (penguin is praying like mama!)

Training her in the way she should go? I guess I was pretty pleased she thought a penguin and I resemble each other.

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!

one

Here is iX's one month cupcake shot. For some reason it didn't end up on my computer so I had to search for it.

Sweetness!

a whole lotta pumpkin (pictures)

We spent some time yesterday at the Arboretum--they do such a remarkable job with their pumpkin patch. I'm sure we'll try for more successful pictures again, maybe on a weekday when it's less crowded. As it is, we took over 300 pictures (Ricardo kept the camera on rapid-succession) in hopes to get one or two good shots of both girls.

We definitely got some good ones...of papa and ix :)

Papa and both his girls...admiring sister baby's shoes

Such a doll

Mama and a squishy (sleepy!) baby

It was probably just slightly too warm for their outfits. But it's still odd to me taking fall (pumpkin) pictures in summer clothes.

Ricardo being paparazzi, sneaking in photos of us

Mama and her pumpkin heads

X finding a new use for her pumpkin hat

Baby snuggles

2 girls! We got one....

So serious. We gotta work on the "smile for the camera" habit.

A little better...

Where's baby sister?

Couldn't get them to both face/look the same way. Ever.

x gives ix a kiss

ix interferes...

x is bigger and more stubborn...

kiss!

Running in the hay maze

She played a game where she would run and run and then come give me a kiss when she got close and I asked her for one. Great shot, minus the (RUDE) kid who came up and said "MOVE" right at that moment.

Hanging out with a (still sleepy) baby

Fun day...Lots of pictures in this post, and we'll probably try again to get some good sister shots at a later date.

Tour des Fleurs 2011

The Tour des Fleurs is an annual race sponsored by the Dallas Arboretum. Not only is it really pretty, it's also a great race with lots of amazing food (not just the typical banana and yogurt cup that are handed out at most 5K-marathons) and vendors afterwards. Plus, they have a kids/family 1-mile fun walk.

Since I was really hoping this baby would have been here earlier, I went ahead and registered for the 1-mile, and Ricardo for the 20K. And...since we managed to get up and get ready, we decided to go for it on Saturday morning. However, no one could believe that I was there are walking with my two and a half day old baby.

But it was an early morning. Ric's race started at 7:30, which meant he wanted to get there at 6:45--time to get to the start, allow for traffic, parking, etc.

So, we were up at way too early o'clock, and I had to pull a sleeping X out of bed and get her dressed and on the way. She was still a happy girl, but sleepy.

More awake and ready for the race. I posted this photo mostly because of those ears.

Enjoying our post-race snacks. I say post-race when ours was really a meander through the Arboretum. At the finish of the kids 1-mile, there was music, "I did it" stickers, snacks, photographers (who made free photo buttons of kids and families who participated), face painters, and a prince and princess who handed out toys (X got a wind-up neon green ladybug). Plus a butterfly painted on her face.

Ric enjoying his post-race "snacks"

Then we got to meander back through the Arboretum to get to our car. This is the first weekend of all the pumpkins--they really do an incredible job. I'm sure we'll be back to get some more pictures. I'm gonna need to knit another pumpkin hat first though!!

Tadpoles!

Papa and his girls

First family photo? We might have done one in the hospital...I'll have to check.

It was a fun day--and seemed totally do-able. I do wonder if I overdid it since I came down with X's cold since. I do not recommend getting a cold while trying to recover from childbirth. I'm starting to feel a bit better today--until I sneeze or cough repeatedly.