Over she flips

This morning Olive turned herself over from her back to her tummy. She was playing on her playmat in the bathroom while Andrew took a shower, and when I walked in, she was lying on her tummy with one arm awkwardly squashed underneath her. "Did you lay her down on her tummy?" I asked Andrew. Nope. "Then she must have rolled over," I logically concluded.

And after one crappy cell phone photo was taken, she rolled back to her typical face-up position and the moment was over.

She sure is getting strong, don't you think?

Two Stories About Milo

Me: Milo, we're going to the playground later, won't that be fun?
Milo: Playground! Yay, yay, yay!!!
Me: Yay! What's your favorite thing at the playground?
Milo: Seeps.
Me: The swings? Swings sure are fun!
Milo: Baaaa.
Me: Oh! Sheep! I don't think we're going to see any of those at the playground, Buddy.

After bath, Andrew gives Milo some lotion to put on himself/distract him while Andrew lotions him up. This happened:
Milo: I put lotion on my knees. (Rubs lotion on knees.) And my nipples. (Rubs lotion on nipples.)

The day has come.

Nooooo!!!!1!

Milo just walked out of his bedroom. After he had been tucked in for the night. After his bedroom door had been shut. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS???

Milo has figured out how to grasp and turn a doorknob while also pulling open the door. And just like that, our blissful kid-free evenings are over.

Babbling like a brook

You must watch this. That is, if you like adorable chatty babies, you must watch this. I am completely smitten.

She's three months old!

Thirteen weeks. Three months and two days. And with every new day, Olive becomes a little bit cuter, if I do say so myself.

She's lost that newborn look and is all adorable chub and sweet baby. Whenever I take her out, a bunch of people stop to admire her and comment on how beautiful/cute/sweet/etc. she is. And I believe they really mean it.

Olive has the biggest blue eyes and the biggest dimples I've ever seen. Her smile is infectious. Her hair still has a reddish glow to it, but in some lights still looks brownish. Sadly, it rarely sticks up in the back anymore. I guess it's grown out just enough to lay a bit flatter. I kind of miss the crazy stick-up hair.

She eats six times a day, somewhere between 3 and 4 ounces at each feeding. Still waking up once (and occasionally twice) a night to eat. She did go one night sleeping straight through, a solid ten- or eleven-hour stretch of sleep, but sadly has not repeated her stellar sleep performance.

Olive has begun babbling hardcore. She'll talk and talk and talk. Her facial expressions vary from concerned to frowny to excited to surprised. She makes high-pitched shrieking noises when she just can't contain herself.

She seems to be a hand/finger/thumb-sucker. She'll take her paci sometimes, but if it's not available she works pretty hard to get those fingers in her mouth. The paci still knocks her out, though, if she's already on the verge of sleep.

Olive is a strong girl. She'll support all her weight and stand up (with no balance, of course), she'll hold her head up for long periods of time, and she has quite a grip. Speaking of her grip, she is figuring out how to reach out for things, and once she gets a grip something, she'll even try to bring it to her mouth (without much success as of yet).

She is interested in toys and her playmat entertains her finally. She likes to watch them being shaken in front of her and will follow them with her eyes when they move back and forth.

Olive wears cloth diapers about 25 percent of the time and disposables the rest of the time. We're just not having much luck with the cloth. They leak or just plain don't fit. And frankly, that is fine by me. Cloth is great in theory, but I don't miss doing all the laundry every other day and worrying about rash.

Olive is so smiley and fun. She'll smile at just about anything. Yesterday I changed her diaper in the car, and as the breeze blew over her freshly wiped bottom, she grinned and laughed. She was really chuckling. Every time the wind blew a little, her smile was as wide as I've ever seen it, and that laugh was so cute. I wish I could have captured that in a video so I could remember it forever.

Though I sometimes get frustrated with her when she cries and cries for absolutely no reason that I can ascertain, I adore my baby girl. So glad she's mine.

Mush

This morning as Milo and Daddy were about ready to head out the door, I asked Milo for a hug. I didn't actual expect him to comply, as he typically says "no" or ignores me altogether. But not today. Today he promptly came over and practically attacked me with a great big hug.

And then? Milo said, "I love you." Completely unprompted. That was the first time he straight up told me he loved me. I hugged him so tight and told him that I loved him. And then he was on his way out the door, leaving me smiling in his wake.

Happy early Mother's Day to me.

All the Way

She did it! Olive slept through the night for the first time. And none of that "waking up at 4am counts as through the night, right?" stuff, either. She really did it. Went to sleep for the night at 7:45pm, didn't wake up until around 6:15 this morning.

It was awesome. (My boobs didn't really think so. They were angry and Hulk-like and refused to let me sleep on my side after about 5am. Oh, and then when she finally got to nurse and relieve me, she ate and ate andateandateandate until she could not possibly fit another drop in. Then she burped and spewed approximately 30 ounces of milky goo all over me.)

But seriously. Olive's timing was pretty spectacular. We spent the weekend visiting friends in Springfield, and Milo decided not to sleep, really, while we were there. I was up many, many times in the night with him (and Olive), retrieving pacis and tucking Kitty in next to him. And though the trip was super fun, Andrew and I were tired and very much appreciated the solid night of sleep.

Speaking of Springfield, our trip was great. First time the four of us visited people who do not have children, so we had to remember everything, from wipes to sippy cups to toys to burp cloths. And we did it. And Milo had a great time. We toured Fantastic Caverns, where touching the wet ceiling was a big hit, as was riding unbuckled in any sort of vehicle. Side note: I do not recommend trying to nurse your baby on this tour. Not easy. We also went to the biggest Bass Pro this side of the Mississippi (or anywhere, possibly). Milo loved the turtles, the fish, the water, and all the stuffed bears. Great fun for toddlers. We ate delicious food (hello, blueberry-strawberry muffins), watched terrible movies (Action Jackson, anyone?) and generally had a fabulous time. All was well, except for the part where Milo wouldn't go to bed until we were with him in the room, so he stayed up until well past 10:00. Not great, but he remained in surprisingly good spirits considering.

I'm wondering if Olive's great night of sleeping was due in part to all the newness of a trip out of town. Who knows? I'm crossing my fingers she repeats her magnificent sleeping performance tonight.

Three weeks ago...

...Milo had his 2nd birthday party. And despite the unexpected heat, it was a great success.

When I started planning an outdoor party, I worried that it would be too cold. The weather in late March is incredibly unpredictable around here. (To demonstrate this point: my wedding anniversary is April 14, and it SNOWED the day before we got married.) However, it turned out to be almost too hot. The temperature pushed 90 degrees, and since few trees had any leaves, the shade was minimal. Thankfully, the guests were all good-natured and got friendly under the shade of the single umbrella without complaint. And aside from the frosting melting off the cupcakes, the party was just as I hoped it would be.

Milo had a trucks/construction theme, complete with orange traffic cones, a couple traffic signs, and a construction site cake. The tables were covered with brown paper; hand-drawn roads were dotted with toy cars. The kids played with bubbles and a couple of Milo's ride-on toys. Presents were abundant, and in the weeks since the party, Milo has really enjoyed playing with his new toys.

Perhaps the highlight of the party for me was the expression on Milo's face as everybody sang to him. We had tried to tell him about the singing/candle tradition so he wouldn't be startled by the attention. I don't know if the prep helped, but he seemed to love having everyone sing to him. He even tried to blow out his candles, with help from Daddy of course.

I imagine this is the last year that Milo won't know his birthday was coming up. The last year he wouldn't want a say in the theme or flavor of the dessert. The time really flies, doesn't it?

Milo's two-year stats

Because no blog is complete without pediatrician-approved measurements, here's how Milo stacked up at his recent two-year check-up (almost a month after his birthday):

Weight: 30 lbs, 10 oz., 80th percentile
Height: 35 inches, 70th percentile
Head circumference: 20 inches, 95th percentile.

Almost three feet tall! And apparently with a huge head! That's my boy.

Olive is two months (and a bonus week or so) old!

Olive is ten weeks old, if you can believe that. She's had her official two-month check-up, and she's measuring quite well.

Weight: 12 lbs., 75th percentile
Length: 23 inches, 80th percentile
Head circumference: 15 1/2 inches, 80th percentile

She's looking less like Milo and more like Olive. I had this moment of clarity awhile back when I looked at her and just thought, of course this is what she looks like. This is my daughter, it's so obvious. It's hard to explain, I think, but it was like I recognized her from way back or something, like I've always known her.

She is smiling a lot these days, especially if she is being smiled at. She responds to big goofy grins and silly, high-pitched voices. Her dimples are knocking 'em dead left and right. Man, those dimples are cute.

I adore Olive's hair. It seems to be getting even longer, and it completely sticks up on the top/back. It's very red in the sun, though not quite as strawberry-blonde as my natural color. A little browner-hued, I think. I'm curious to see how her hair color changes as she grows, or if it will change.

Her schedule is becoming more regular. Wakes for the day around 7:00, eats, hangs out for a bit, then back to sleep for a good long morning nap. Sleeps/eats/wakes during the afternoon, eating every three hours or so. Slightly fussy in the late afternoon/evening, but still pretty easy to placate. Down for the night by 8:30, usually closer to 7:30 (but I want to push it a little later). Wakes once at about 3:00 to eat and get a diaper change. It's not too bad. My main complaint is that she isn't great at napping in her crib during the day. She sleeps great there at night, but prefers to be snuggled for daytime naps. It's not super conducive to me doing much of anything.

Olive takes awhile to get good and worked up about something. If she is hungry/poopy/uncomfortable/sleepy/etc., she sort of quietly whines and whimpers. If not responded to, she builds up to a good steady cry. She rarely turns it up to 11, which is nice.

She's getting stronger all the time and now can hold her head for a minute or two at a time. She supports her upper body, too, briefly. Seems to prefer being more upright and looking out at the world than in a reclined position in someone's arms. Still rolling over tummy to back, but not back to tummy yet. She's gotten close, but hasn't managed to flip all the way.

Olive has, in her short life, been hit in the face with a toy, kicked in the face (albeit gently) by her brother, and been placed too close to the edge of Milo's bed (due to the face-kicking, I was trying to move her out of harm's way, forgetting how wiggly she has become)(and thankfully the bed is just a mattress on the floor) and rolled off (courtesy of yours truly)(I was tied up changing an unexpectedly poopy diaper of Milo's and feel terrible about the whole face-planting thing). Kids with older siblings have to be tough, don't they? Not sure how I ended up so wimpy. Clearly my sister was not tough enough on me.

Olive has definitely wiggled into this family. It's becoming more natural for me to say I have two kids and talk about being a family of four. And I think I like it.