Thankful Thursday - 134

This week I'm thankful for...

1. Help. I am now on my own during the day much of the time as David has been working much more. Things are going great, but I am so grateful for help when I need it. Either David will come up to help out, or our parents will come by. We've also been blessed with meals a lot, easing my stress significantly! 

Mom and I took the kids and Sherlock to the park the other day. Dom really enjoyed running around the grass, and very briefly playing on the playground.

Just one of the meals we've been blessed with. Our first meal train meal through church... filet mignon! That's not something we'd ever buy ourselves. BONUS!

2. Patience. I have been blessed with an extra burst of patience I think. I am a person who needs a lot of personal space, but that is something I do not get much of (at all) lately. I am lucky to have a relatively happy newborn and toddler, making the patience come more easily when it does hit the fan. 

This is how I spend much of my day. A baby attached to me, and a toddler playing as close to me as physically possible (aka often on me...)

Happy chunky baby! Speaking of chunky baby, we had a midwife appointment today and she is already up to 8lb 15oz! She is 3 weeks old and as born at 7lb 6oz. She's gaining almost twice as much as the midwives "want" to see, so that's awesome!!

Sleepy love

Dom rushing to the rescue when she started fussing.

3. Newborn Photos. We didn't hire someone to do newborn photos this time around for a few reasons. One, we chose to save the money we would have spent on photos. Two, David told me he would like to give it a go. OKAY! We had a good time taking some pictures the other day, and I'm really happy with how they turned out :) Here's a sneak peek!

I can't get over how much hair she has! Also, that shoulder dimple is so cute <3

It's so much harder to pose a newborn than they make it look.

Dominic - 17 Months Old

Dominic is now 17 months old. All of a sudden he feels like a little boy to us instead of our baby. He is a very kind-hearted, helpful boy, who has definitely taken a liking to his little sister. 

I'm sure there are so many more things I should be noting, and many other developmental milestones he's hit, but... you know. We've been a little busy/distracted the last few weeks!

Weight: 32lb (100+ percentile)
Height: 32.5 inches (65th percentile)

Likes:

• Singing songs with actions (Tiny Turtle, Happy and You Know it, etc.)
• Buckles. He has finally figured out how to do them up, so he plays at his high chair, the baby's swing and car seat, and his own car seat. I'm in no rush for him to learn how to undo the buckles, but I don't mind him doing them up!
• His little sister. He lights up when he sees her, and points to her, and says "Ya ya" which is how he says Emilia. He loves to help me burp her, and point to her ears, hands, toes, etc. If she's crying he rushes over to rock her, give her a blanket, tickle her toes, or anything else he can think of to comfort her. 

Dislikes:

• Being told "no", or having something taken away from him that he shouldn't be playing with. That's a surefire way to have a toddler tantrum meltdown. 

Notes:

• New words: Turtle, Night Night, Help (it's this growly sort of helphelp sound), All done, HIIIIIIIIII, Please, thank you, Emilia (Ya Ya), cheese
• He has his own language of jibberish now, and it often sounds like something out of Lord of the Rings. Lots of hard consonants like an orc language. 
• When he plays with his lego, he used to make big sporadic towers. He now likes to keep things flatter, so he will go layer by layer, strategically picking pieces that fit the spots perfectly. 
• Eats his food with a fork very successfully 
• He has 12 teeth now, and his canines should be in soon I think. 
• He wears 2T and 3T clothing, depending on the brand. 
• He suddenly started blowing kisses when we say goodnight or bye to him. It's super sweet. 
• If we ask for a "snuggle", he will lay his head on our shoulder and pat our shoulders or back. he must have seen us burping Emilia enough times to decide it looked cozy. 
• Just today he started really kissing us. He has always enjoyed when we kiss each other, so today he grabbed David's face and planted a few nice kisses on him and then did the same to me. What a ham!

A typical day:

700 - wake up

715 - breakfast (oatmeal & banana)

Play-time

930 - occasionally a small snack

1100 - lunch time

1155 - 10 minutes of Paw Patrol

1215 - nap time

245 - up from nap

3/330 - snack if needed

500 - dinner time

630 - bath (on bath day), jammies, and some wind-down play time. 

7/715 - head upstairs for bed!

I really wanted a picture of Dom holding Emilia, but he's not quite ready yet apparently. He was happy to peer from the side though, haha.

Thankful Thursday - 133

How did I get so lucky to have such beautiful babes? Or... silly in Dom's case.

This week I have so many things to be thankful for.

1. Sibling bonding. Dominic is so caring with his little sister. He's started wanting to be close to her, and if I'm feeding will just crawl up beside us and sit and stare at her, or touch her toes. If she's sleeping he will try to rock the swing/chair she's in, or will just squat beside her and stare. Sherlock is also becoming rather fond of the new addition. 

I asked him to give his baby a kiss

2. The sweetness. It might sound bad to say this, but I can admit that I am in love with our baby girl so much quicker than I was with Dom. She is (so far) a super easy baby. She went 24 hours with a total of maybe 10 minutes of crying. She fusses if she's gassy or tired, but other than that she's content to look around, eat, and sleep. She's such a blessing to us. Let's hope this relaxed baby sticks around!

NAKEY WAKEY BABY!

3. Visits. It's so nice for me to have some adult interaction, so I really appreciate having visitors and/or getting out of the house every so often. I'm starting to feel a little stir crazy. I try to get out at least for a walk or something every day to enjoy this gorgeous Spring we've been having. 

Gramma

Oma

Uncle Jeff playing board games with Dom

Omama and two of her great grandchildren

4. Emilia has surpassed her birth weight! Emilia is 2 weeks old and has far surpassed her birth weight. She gained an average of 52g per day this last week, and the midwives wanted to see 30g per day. Nargess said I was doing a great job with Em, and the reason she's so easy going is because there's not much to complain about when you're so well fed! This is a big deal to me. The first 2-3 weeks with Dom were so stressful because he wasn't gaining weight and I felt like such a failure (although I now realize I may have been overreacting...). Em weighed in today at 8lb 1.5oz before her feed. She would have been probably closer to 8lb 4oz afterwards. Woo hoo!

Thankful Thursday - 132

I started this blog last week before I went into labor. Instead of doing a whole new one, I'm just going to build on this one!

1. Sunny afternoons! I love these sunny days. It makes it a little more tolerable not being admitted to the hospital when it's so beautiful outside!

Katrina was at her parents' house on Monday and invited us to come over after nap-time to let the boys run around while we sat in the sun. DEAL!

2. Midwife in training. Dom comes to all my midwife appointments, and this week I was laying on the couch and he came over with the dog's collar to measure(?) my belly. It was pretty random and adorable. 

3. Family walk. We got our for our first walk with the whole family this week. It felt sooo good to be out. Also, this Beluga Baby wrap?! Hello freedom!!! Baby is happy and mommy is happy!

4. Newborn cuddles <3. Sorry Dominic, but I am enjoying the first week with Emilia much more than the first week you were home with us. It's so profoundly different this time around. I keep waiting for it to feel impossible. I'm sure the first time she pulls an all-nighter, or gets colic all evening I will look back fondly on these days. 

5. Fun stuff for Dom! David has been home this week, and we've had lots of help from family as well. It has been so so nice to have that entertainment for Dom so I can focus on Emilia. 

Okay, so this isn't fun stuff, but he's watching Daniel Tiger on David's phone (his diaper change activity), and playing with his boobs. I can't handle the hilarity.

My parents found this play kitchen for free on their way to our house, so stopped to pick it up. It fits perfectly in our dining area, and Dom is SO excited about it. First thing he does every day is run over to it and start opening and closing and rearranging the cupboards.

Got the water table set up for those hot days!

Our outing to the midwives on Monday. He thought the BP thing was a doppler. He was trying to hear the baby in his belly...

Fun trip to the grocery store with Dad

A nice long (for him) walk to the park!

He is such a big boy all of a sudden. No longer the baby!