It definitely is getting a bit easier. About two weeks ago, Zoe started to sleep through the night, so that was a welcome relief to us all, especially Katy. Now, she is currently a bit fussy if she is awake, but she hasn't been starting to look around a bit more and be somewhat content (while awake). She definitely cries a bit and can still be a bit inconsolable, but we are starting to get used to it a little.
Having two kids is definitely harder than we imagined. While most people would say that with two kids, when both mom & dad are home, you go to a man-to-man defense, we prefer to use a zone defense. Katy or I may be in the kitchen and the other in the living room, so if Zoe is in the swing and Lily wanders into the living room, one of us has to guard both of them. But, if Lily stays in the kitchen, it is one-on-one in both rooms.
Lily doesn't really sit still for too long. She loves to move around. We have been going over to Live Oak Park fairly regularly, and she is starting to recognize it and gets real excited when we get there. The only problem with that place is that she loves the big slide (probably 25-feet high) and always wants to go to it so we are constantly re-directing her. But, it is funny to watch her run around there because she loves to move quickly. Lily is starting to show a lot more attention to Zoe. If she hears Zoe crying, she points over to her and looks concerned. If Lily can move around, she will run into where Zoe is, check on her to make sure she is alright and then after about 3 seconds, go back to what she is doing. Anytime she sees Zoe without the passie, she says "Uh-oh" and tries to put it back in, or should I say shove it back in. But, Lily is being a good big sister. She is starting to fully recognize what we say to her; she doesn't have too many words, but she certainly tries hard. The other night, we were dropping her off downtown with Papi and Grandma Patti, and Lily had her first complete sentence: "Mama, dada, bye." I guess she wasn't sad to see us leave. Today, we dropped her off at school and Mrs. Lisa had brought in donuts. 5 kids were there and eating already, so Lily hurried to sit down, the teacher laid down a paper towel, and Lily kept pointing aggressively to the towel asking where her donut was; Mrs. Lisa handed it over quickly and Lily was happy. We are teaching her our bad eating habits. The other thing that has been great over the last month was seeing and hearing about Lily at school. She started preschool at Bracken United Method Church (BUMP). Mrs. Lisa always writes that Lily is "happy and playful". Lily is learning to sleep on a mat by herself, she is playing well. Today, we had the Thanksgiving Feast, an annual BUMP tradition. We were looking forward to having the time with Katy, Lily, and I, but it was not the precious family event that we imagined. It was right at 12, so during nap time, and Lily was extra tired. She touched one of the plates that was hot, and it set her off, she pretty much cried the rest of the meal, so we quickly ate and then got home. Oh well, we have to try to enjoy those events.
But, we certainly are having a good time and still getting to do a few things together with just Katy and I; we went to a Spurs game last week, and we do get to have our Sunday nights together at the 'Growing Kids' class.
Here are some pictures from the past month:
Pictures from Lily's play times:
We have started maybe a bad habit of having snack time with Lily. She loves to sit at the grown-ups table and have Sonic drinks with Mom & Dad:
Here are pictures from Zoe's first bath (she didn't like it at first but it really comforts her now):
Here is an array of pictures (from earliest to latest) showing Zoe and her different outfits:
Here are pictures from Lily's second (Zoe's first is shown above) Halloween:
We did actually make it out to eat as a family; thankfully, we were at Zio's and got to all sit outside:
Lily loves airplanes, and we went over to the Randolph AFB air show a couple of weeks ago and she had a lot of fun.
We went down last Sunday to watch Papi run in the marathon; if we had let Lily get out of her stroller she might have run as well:
Finally, here are some photos of Zoe throughout November; she is really growing and is a big and tall baby.
