Paisley - One Month

I cannot believe Paisely is already one month old - time is flying by. She is the best little baby. She only cries when she's hungry and other than that, you almost don't know she's around.

She's a chunker - she weighs 10 lbs (based on my home scale). She's eating roughly every 3-4 hours and about 4 oz of formula. She's a great sleeper too - she usually wakes up around 3a and 6a to eat and then she goes right back to sleep.

She is just starting to stay awake a little more during the day. Her limit is an hour and a half. Anything past that time and she's exhausted and ready for bed. She loves the bath and has really good head and neck control. She's starting to smile and it's the cutest thing.

The Flu Sucks!

I have been dealing with the stomach flu for 7 days now. I had it for 2 and now Emery has had it for 5. I am up to my eyes in throw up and poop. I wish it would end already. Luckily, Emery is still in good spirits and just has her moments where she is whiny, cranky and really needy.

Carter has been protecting Emery all week. Isn't this the cutest picture?
She's still in good spirits while eating toast and drinking water. She fell asleep between the couch and the ottoman with her bum in the air. I knew she couldn't be comfortable but I didn't have the heart to move her. She was exhausted and needed a little nap.Luckily, Paisley has steered clear of the flu. I'm crossing my fingers it stays this way. Here she is enjoying a little tummy time on the boppy pillow.
Emery just has to try out all of Paisley's baby gear. Here she is in the bouncy chair.

Cornbellys

We headed out to Cornbelly's last Thursday for some Halloween fun. I had never been there and I'm so glad we went. I would love to make another trip this year but I'm not sure if it will happen before they close. I just wish they opened earlier during the week, 4p is late especially when it gets dark and cold by 7p.
Emery with all of the boys in the corn maze. She loves hanging around the boys and being the only girl. We went through the easy corn maze that should have taken us 30 mins. Emery led the way all the way to post #7 out of 10. She was doing great with navigating us through the maze - she obviously gets those skills from Ivan. After post #7, we were lost. Some of the kids started to get scared that we were really lost. We ended up getting out of the maze after an hour - and we came out the entrance. Oh well, after an hour of the corn maze, we were all over it anyway.
There was a little princess land that Emery loved. She went into this doll house and didn't come out for like 30 minutes. It was so packed and after 2 other kids had to be rescued by their dads I started to get worried. I didn't even know what was inside the house. I finally asked a little girl what was inside and she told me a ladder that leads you up to a little loft area. She also told me the only way down was by ladder. I got worried and headed inside. Emery was up in the loft just hanging out. I am reminded everyday how big and grown up she is. So sad!
They also had an area where the girls could pick out dresses and play dress up. Emery was in heaven!

Paisley's Newborn Pictures

I'm way late on posting these, be here are Paisley's newborn pictures. They were taken at 8 days old and she was so good the entire photo shoot. She seriously slept through 95% of it and only woke up to have a quick bottle/burp session and then she was back to sleep.

My friend Amanda took them and did an AMAZING job. I can't wait for her to take our family pictures next month. You can see her work and contact her at: www.loulouphotography.com

Breaking Point!

I've been stuck in the house for 5 - count that - 5 days! I haven't done my hair or make up for 5 days either. I came down with the stomach flu on Friday and it was still lingering on Saturday. Then, Emery came down with it on Sunday (after she puked all over me, the kitchen floor, the kitchen sink and herself) and she's still fighting it. She seemed to be better yesterday, but today she said, "my bum is throwing up". Gross, I know, but it's how she said it and I think it's cute (not the actual act of it, but how she described it).

I am not a home body. I have to get out of the house EVERY SINGLE DAY. I go to either Target or Wal Mart literally 3-4 times per week just to get out of the house. I was doing ok with being stuck in the house up until today. To be honest, I was either sick or taking care of Emery so I didn't even think much of it.

Well, after Emery seemed to be doing better all day yesterday, I decided we would go to the Aquarium today for a couple of hours. I was so excited. Once I realized she was still sick today and we couldn't leave the house, I started to feel the pressure inside me. I then made a small grocery list and decided we would do a quick trip to Target. Then, I had the idea to go to Smith's Marketplace instead - the honest reason was just so I could drive further and be out of the house just a little bit longer.

As the day went by and Emery's "bum was throwing up" more and more, reality set in that 1) I shouldn't take her out of the house and 2) I shouldn't risk giving someone else what we have. By 5p, I was counting down the time until Ivan would be home. I even started thinking that I would go to Smiths Marketplace after he got home - at 930p. Then Ivan texted me that he was going to his friends after school and I almost started crying. I needed out of the house! I needed a break.

I have been a 100% full time MOM for 4 weeks and counting. I have had one 3 hour break from both girls to go to dinner with my girlfriends. By the way, Ivan struggled with the one 3 hour time frame that he took care of both girls - he just doesn't get it.

Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying being home, but it starts to hit you when you pretty much do 99% of the care taking for 2 kids and 99% of the middle of the night feedings for a newborn. I'm still keeping up on the laundry and shopping to top it all off. I have been taking Emery to Grandma Lola's a few times a week and Paisley once a week so I have gotten a break from having both of them 100% of the time.

So needless to say, I've hit my breaking point. I had already made plans for Grandma Lola to watch Paisley while I took Emery to the Children's Museum on Thursday. Well, once I hit my breaking point, we had a change of plans. Grandma Lola will now be watching both Emery and Paisley and Mama is getting a well deserved break. In fact, I'm getting a massage and then going to sit at Sanctuary for as long as I would like in their relaxation room. I think I'm going to take a few magazines I've been meaning to read and just RELAX! I now have some ME time to look forward to and I already feel better.

Now I'm off to feed sweet Paisley. I wouldn't change it for the world, but inside I am counting down the hours until I get my massage and ME time.

The Witches at Gardner Village

We headed out to Gardner Village today to see the witches and had a great time. The weather was perfect!

Duncan, Quinlan and Emery
Here's a picture just to show what you get when you try to get the "perfect" shot with three kids between the ages of 2 to 4 I was feeling guilty for never taking pictures of Paisley on our outings so here she is sleeping peacefully in her car seat.Then I decided I wanted pictures with her so I dared to take the sleeping baby out of her car seat. I wasn't sure if I would regret it later or not but to me, the pictures and memories was worth it. I got lucky and she went back to sleep as soon as she got back into her car seat and snuggled away with her blanket and binky. We seriously have the best babies (I hope I didn't just jinx myself)Grandma Phyllis and PaisleyThe whole gang..

Family Zoo Day

We headed out to the zoo on Sunday and it was seriously the best zoo trip I have ever had. We had great company, great weather and the animals were all out and playing. We left Paisley with Grandma Lola because I was a little unsure of the weather and so that we could focus 100% on Emery.

First, we had brunch at Ruth's Diner - it was so yummy! Emery even asked for more of their awesome biscuits and jam. It's very rare for Emery to ask for more of anything.
All day long Emery was asking to see the giraffe's. I never knew she was so into giraffes until this trip to the zoo. Of course, once we got to see them, she was all about the train ride. She looked at the giraffe for about 30 seconds and then said, "ok, let's keep looking".Emery loves carousels as I'm sure most kids do. The last time she rode one was at the fair about a month ago. When the carousel at the fair first started, Emery was holding on for dear life to every inch of my body she could hold on to. This time, she kept pushing my hands away from her. She told me to go ride the animal next to me. It's amazing how much she's growing up and how quickly she is changing.
Don't you wish you could sleep on one thin rope like this?
Family picture on the train
Playground time!!!

The Aquarium

The girls and I went to the Aquarium last week with my Mom and Quinlan. Emery and Quinlan have a great time playing together and by the end of the day, they were holding hands and inseparable. We didn't get any pictures of Paisley - she just slept in her car seat the entire time we were there.
Here is a cute picture of Emery and Paisley. You can't see Paisley's face very well as she was at the end of some tummy time and her neck was getting tired from holding her head up.

Moon Dough

Emery's favorite show right now is Max & Ruby. She gets to watch a few episodes a day and has taken a liking to every single toy advertised on the commercials - she says "Mama, I want that" to everything - even commercials for hotels. Anyway, she's been saying that she wants Moon Dough for about a month now.

I finally broke down and bought it for her. I actually bought it a week ago and had it hidden until Ivan or I actually had a good amount of time to sit down and play with her. It's sad that I'm not working and the Moon Dough sat hidden for several days because we were too busy to sit and play with it for an hour or so.

The other day, I opened the cupboard to get some apple juice out (assuming Ivan put the apple juice in front of the hidden Moon Dough) and Emery spotted the Moon Dough (the apple juice was behind the Moon Dough - don't as me why??). She got so excited and it went a little like this:

"Moon Dough!!!"
"Mama - Moon Dough!!"
"Mama - thank you for buying me Moon Dough - did you buy it from Target?"
"Mama, let's play Moon Dough. This is so exciting"

Now, I wasn't really planning on playing Moon Dough. My intent was for Ivan to play Moon Dough with her since I knew it would be messy and I tend to focus more on the mess than the fun at hand. I had also been trying to get to the store for 3 days to do some grocery shopping but Emery was so excited I couldn't turn down her request to play it. So, needless to say, we sat and played with the Moon Dough and Emery was on cloud 9 for the rest of the day.