Life is getting better

Well, we hope that Zoe doesn't come back later and get on to us for not keeping up with her blog regularly.  Right now, it doesn't seem to matter whether we update it or not.  She is either quite content or asleep or pretty fussy, blog being updated or not.....

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:

We finally took Zoe to church the first Sunday of November.  Here are pictures from that event (Lily had to put on a cute outfit as well):

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.

Zoe's first week at home

Well, we can sum up Zoe's first week pretty easily: unpredictable. Pretty much, she is either sleeping, crying, or eating. I guess that describes most newborns, but still it made life a bit unpredictable because there was no set schedule to those activities. Zoe had a rough time this staying awake for her feedings. She was eating about every 3 hours, and she got progressively more efficient as the week went on. We had a good, re-assuring visit with the lactation people on Tuesday (showed she was getting something). Then, we were equally re-assured by a follow-up visit with her doctor on Tuesday afternoon that she had not lost any further weight since leaving the hospital (still at 9 pounds, 9 ounces). But, the hardest part of this week was the nighttime sleeping (or lack thereof). She spent, on average, about 2-3 hours awake between the hours of 11 pm and 4 am. Maybe, she is on a European internal clock and is waking up when they wake up. Who knows? But, Katy and I did the parental shift and each of us would take a shift. Personally, my resources are more limited than hers so I wasn't awake as much as she was. For example, on Thursday night, she was awake after her 11 pm feeding until about 2 am. I put on Star Wars Episode IV, which would seem pretty obvious to me, would help anyone to relax, but it didn't do the job for her. But, it made my shift staying up with her more enjoyable. Then, Katy woke up for the next feeding and relieved me. Anyway, we were able to enjoy the benefit of Grandma Patti coming over to spend the night on Friday night. We got a date night out of it (Macaroni Grill!) and then got to sleep through the night (or at least, for Katy, only had to get up once to pump). Even with all the crying, we are especially blessed that Lily is such a good sleeper. We are walking past her room in the middle of the night with a crying baby, and Lily just sleeps through. It is hard to imagine it now, but we know that Zoe will hopefully be at that stage someday. This was a rough week, seems a bit more difficult because of also wanting and needing to spend time with Lily during the day. The people are right who said that having two kids will increase our workload exponentially versus just doubling the workload. Fun times!

For Lily, her biggest development this week was actually a somewhat negative one, on Saturday.  First, we had the gate to the stairs open accidently, and I walked into the kitchen for one minute and when I returned she was upstairs already, in Katy's jewelry corner, trying on a bracelet or something.  Walked all the way up the stairs on her own and then went straight for the jewels.  Little did we know that would be completely inconsequential.  That afternoon, I heard her stirring from her nap a bit earlier than normal.  We have always practiced not getting her up right away but letting her try to fall back asleep.  So, I practiced that, and about 45 minutes later (2 hours after she started her nap, so still a bit early), I walk into Lily's room and there she is SITTING in her sofa chair with a book on her lap.  Somehow she had gotten out of her crib, and from the look on her face when I walked in, she equally knew that a) she was proud of herself; and b) she was doing something she should not be doing.  Not sure how she got up, and I don't think it is entirely coincidental that her getting out came the same week Zoe came home, but it certainly does open up a whole new era for us with Lily....

Zoe's first night was spent in the cradle next to our bad, the same bed her big sister and her dad Lily slept in. Different from Lily, Zoe likes to sleep on her side.

Zoe is starting out quite early with the hairbows.  She was born with so much hair that she does need the hairband like Lily did.

The other difference between Lily and Zoe is that Zoe is really taking to the passie.  If we didn't have this device over this past week, I'm not sure how we would have made it through.

Here is Zoe and mama at the first trip to the doctor.  Very good checkup!

Last Wednesday, September 30, we went for our first walk as a family.  Don't worry, Dad was there to push one of the strollers.

Even though she is now having to share the spotlight, Lily is still taking her fair share of the spotlight.  Here at breakfast, on Thursday, she was licking the jelly off the toast.  As these babies get older, feeding becomes much easier, but you do have a different set (and oftentimes, much messier) of challenges.

On Thursday, we spent some time at Live Oak Park.  Lily got to get some energy out, and Zoe did her thing, and slept through it.  After the park, we headed over for dinner at McDonald's.

Like we've said, Zoe has taken a lot of our energy to keep happy during the evening times.  When we need a break from holding her, we'll try placing her on our knees.....whatever it takes to keep her happy.

Zoe got her first trip to Bless Your Heart on Friday.  Lily was there as well and had a wonderful opportunity (especially with her cute outfit) to be in the Bless Your Heart harvest email.  But, she was not cooperating and so the cute (but scary) scarecrowess got to monopolize the spotlight.  Here also is Zoe with mom and Cherie and the cute checkout counter decor that was made for her.

Like we said, we'll try anything to make Zoe happy.  Sometimes, it doesn't always work like we would hope.

Friday, Lily got a fun outing at the kids indoor play area, Dynamoze.  She loves just throwing her body around and there was lots of fun equipment to play with.  Here, she is going in for the slam dunk.  Most of the time, though, she is fairly content with just watching the other kids.

Zoe got her first bath on Saturday and did not like it one bit.  We were real gentle on her, but she cried most of the time.  I'm not sure any baby likes this experience.  Hopefully, she will get to be like her sister and love bath time.  Afterwards, once she was dry and all wrapped up, you can see that she is quite content.

On Sunday, Lily got to have her afternoon outing as a trip to Sonic with Dad.  We had a busy day playing that we had to relax with a nice refreshing drink.  Yes, that is a couple of phone books that Lily is using as a booster chair.  We sat for about 30 minutes, and Lily was quite quiet, enjoying the sugar-free & caffeine-free drink; plus, having the ice helped a lot.

Zoe had a hard time falling asleep on Sunday afternoon, so she came down to watch dad and big sister during their snack time.  Another cute outfit you can see that she had on.