TABLE FOR 7

We met the Kennedy's for dinner at Rusty's tonight. The food was great (it was a Lobster Ravioli special night - my favorite!) and the kids were pretty well behaved, as a whole. Will slept through dinner (the little angel), James only fussed mildly a couple of times (and didn't throw ANY food, OR his sippy cup, thank goodness), and Cora... well, Cora was OK until her "witching hour" hit around 7pm. After Jay gave it a valiant effort, Al took a try:

Unfortunately, there is no appeasing Cora during the hour or so before her bedtime. Sure, she'll take a temporary break from fussing if you walk her around while bouncing and shushing her, but the second you try to sit down she goes right back to it. She's just tired, hungry, and ready to be swaddled into sleep. Ah, newborns...

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS...

...when Daddy goes upstairs without James

WHATEVER WORKS

Taking our parenting motto of "Whatever Works" to a new level, this is now the ONLY way that I can clip James' nails...

...by strapping him into his stroller and distracting him with television!

His outdoor swing works well too...

SUPER BABY!

Cora is amazingly strong for her age (she'll be 7-weeks-old on Monday), in our opinion (and experience). Especially since she showed up early, and was so small.

She is holding her head higher and higher, and for longer and longer stretches. She's even starting to dig those toes in and push off, though hopefully she won't be flipping over any time soon.

And the little miss is very good at holding herself up when she's on our chests. See? She can even do it one-handed:

PARTY KIDS

We dressed the kids up for Sandy's housewarming party tonight (and we think they cleaned up pretty darn well):

Holy COW! James is looking so grown up these days...

Sandy's place was packed! We saw lots of friends (including LOTS of kids - there's something in the water around here), and even met some new folks. Of course, our kids were happiest outside, as usual:

SEMI-CRUNCHY

When I was newly pregnant with James, I joined an online forum on BabyCenter.com in order to connect with other new mommy-to-be's. Because my best friend and all the mommies I knew at the time lived far, far away, I needed a support group that I could turn to at any time of day or night: a group of women who were going through a similar experience and set of emotions as I was. I managed to find a group called the "Darling Daffodils" - all women expecting babies during the first week of March 2009, and they are a really wonderful bunch. In fact, I still keep in contact with many of them weekly on our forum. Some have even become my Facebook friends, and there is one I'd love to meet "in real life" someday.

Other than this little tight-knit group, I also participate in a few other forums on BabyCenter (March 2009 First Time Moms, March 2009 Sibling Seekers, Cloth Diapering, Cloth Diaper Swap, etc.). Over the past year and a half or so, I have learned so much from these women! Not all the groups are filled with nice, sweet women though, and when the controversial baby topics get brought up, I tend to run for cover! The drama can be a bit overwhelming (and surprising) at times. Those women who are especially passionate (and opinionated) about certain topics tend to include their views in their signatures as "parenting tags" - a bunch of accronyms that BabyCenter mamas are all familiar with. I do not do this, mostly because I don't want anyone to judge me for my parenting choices (at least not without getting to know me first). But it's made me think... What would my parenting tags look like? And what sort of first impression would I make to these mamas if they judged me by such a signature?

This would be me in a nutshell...

Denise: EBFing, CDing, BWing, ERFing, VAXDing, nonCIRCing, FT-WOHM to James (3/3/09) and Cora (6/14/10), married to DH since 12/03

I bet they'd think I was semi-crunchy, at the very least!

So, what do all those accronyms mean?

Denise: Exclusively Breastfeeding, Cloth Diapering, Babywearing, Extended Rear-Facing, Vaccination Delaying, non-Circumcising, Full-Time Work Out of the Home Mom to James (3/3/09) and Cora (6/14/10), married to Dear Husband since 12/03

Holy accronym attack Batman, BabyCenter.com is worse than the feds!

Oh well. My actual signature is much more simple:

Sweet Baby James arrived on 3/3/09

Baby Doll Cora arrived on 6/14/10

LOOKING LESS ALIKE

We thought Cora looked a lot like James when she was born (only smaller, and with more delicate features), but it seems our babies are looking less alike as she grows. Here they are at 1-month-old:

3RD TIME'S A CHARM

NOT!

Poor James has another ear infection. This makes #3. The doc said that if he gets another one within the next month or so, it'll be time to start talking tubes... He also has a summer cold (which is what caused the ear infection) that he caught from one of his classmates. Oh, and conjunctivitis again, if you can't tell from the photo. Lovely, eh?

In other news, he's feeling well enough to make the most of his 32 inches, climbing all over things he shouldn't be...

SMILES FOR MOMMY!

After big brother and Daddy getting smiles over the weekend, Mommy finally got some just for her this morning. Lots of them. And it was wonderful!

I caught a few of them on camera...

Some of them were big, goofy grins! She had me giggling...

ONE OF CORA'S HABITS

Sticking her tongue out at us:

She does this often, and has been doing so since she was born. Sometimes it even seems she does it as an appropriate reaction to something we say to her...

ONLY TWO WEEKS TO GO...

...until I no longer get to spend my mornings sleeping in with Cora.

CORA'S BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT

They've started arriving in your mailboxes...

BIG BROTHER, LITTLE SISTER

Before Cora outgrows her newborn-sized onesies (which will happen any day now), we wanted to get a photo of our babies together in their Big Brother and Little Sister outfits (now that we can trust James not to crush her, and she's not quite so fragile).

James really likes to give his baby sister kisses now. Not on request either, but of his own initiative. In fact, Cora gets way more kisses than I do these days. For example, this morning when James woke up I knelt down to get my usual good morning hug. Instead, he kissed Cora. And when I asked for my kiss and hug, he shut the door on me...

James also asks to hold Cora now (by pointing at her and saying "eh eh eh eh", as he does for all objects he wants these days)... ...but he quickly changes his mind after she's been in his lap for a few seconds. Perhaps she makes him nervous. Or our hovering does...

On a related note, we witnessed Cora's first social smiles yesterday. Was it Mommy, who spends all day with her every day, who got the first smile? Nope. It was Big Brother.

TWO IN DIAPERS

Well, Cora has reached the weight limit of her prefolds. When she was 1-week-old and we first started using them, we had to fold them down in front so they didn't cover her entire belly. Now they barely reach her waistline and we can hardly pull the "wings" of the angel fold around to reach the front. So it's time to retire them and move her into the BumGenius Organic One-Size AIOs. She's currently using them on the smallest settings for rise and waist, but they fit much better than I thought they would at 10 lbs.

And now both our babies are wearing the exact same diapers, just on different settings.

DADDY SAID KNOCK ME OUT

Daddy 1: Cora 0

Oh, she has such a pretty profile! Especially when she's peacefully sleeping.

(Note: Cora requires a burp cloth under her head no matter where she rests. Unfortunately, she's a spitter. She's nothing like our pal Fountain Face 2.0, but still. James never spit-up. Ever. So this is new to us. Burp cloths as baby pillows are happily reducing my daily laundry quota though.)

PACIFIED

THE ART OF DECEPTION

James used to be SUCH a good eater. He would eat anything. He finished everything. And then he turned 16-months-old... and his independence skyrocketed.

For the past 2 weeks it has been impossible to get James to eat his vegetables. And the few weeks before that, the only way we could get him to do so was to give him a bowl of crushed ice to feed himself and play with while we fed him (the grandparents remember those weeks fondly, I'm sure). But even that won't work anymore. Why? Because James now flat-out refuses to be fed. He MUST feed himself. And he won't feed himself veggies because 1) he's not very good with a spoon yet and 2) he won't yet eat non-pureed veggies (of any variety). So we finally broke out our cookbook "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfield (thanks for the recommendation Karyn).

We had purchased it back when we couldn't get James to eat his green veggies, back when he was still a teeny, tiny 7-month-old. And back then we didn't really need the book - all we had to do was hide the green veggies in the orange veggies. That sneaky trick worked well for about 9 months...

The first recipe we tried was the grilled cheese:
Looks just like a regular ol' grilled cheese sandwich, right? Well, the secret ingredient is pureed sweet potato (or butternut squash, but we went with the potato tonight - we have plenty of both stocked in the chest freezer). I taste-tested it first, of course (I don't feed James anything that I wouldn't be willing to eat myself), and it was GOOD! And James agreed:
He finished that entire sandwich in about 3.5 minutes. Hooray for deception!

A GOOD WAY TO END THE WEEK

WORKOUT WITH JAMES

Simply having a toddler in your life is great for burning calories...

AZURE'S 1ST BIRTHDAY PARTY

On Saturday we dressed James up to attend Azure's 1st Birthday party:
Many thanks to Amy for the family photos:

James had a great time at the party, playing with Azure's toys, continually collecting all the pink bouncy balls (which ended up being excellent party favors), and eating cake and ice cream. Cora slept through the entire event. The pink balloon Amy sent us home with was also a big hit:

ESKIMO KISSES

CORA'S 1-MONTH WELL BABY

Cora had her 1-month well baby exam this morning and she passed with flying colors! Or should I say she passed with flying 3's?... We were right - she's gained over 3 lbs since she was born, weighing in at exactly 9 lbs today. Her pediatrician was a bit surprised at her weight gain (since most babies gain right around 2 lbs in their first month), but not concerned, since she also gained 3 inches in length. That puts her into the 50th percentile for weight and 75th for length. Her head circumference increased by 3 cm, placing her into the 25th percentile. Seems she's all over the charts right now. The pediatrician was very pleased with her health and development so far (looking around the office and letting out the occassional "coo" is all that is expected at this age), so I was excited to leave the appointment with a pat on the back. The only recommendations the pediatrician gave us were to try and space out her daytime feedings a bit, which we're trying to do anyway (since Cora needs to get on a feeding schedule ASAP), and to start giving her vitamins (because exclusively breastfed babies tend to be deficient in vitamin D). We'll do our best, but it's hard to argue with (or upset) this gorgeous face:
(And yes, she is wearing her big brother's blue hand-me-down in these photos - it looks good on her!)

SLEEPING BABES

Today was my very first day home alone, all day, with both my babies. I admit, I was nervous when daycare called at 8:15am saying that we had to come get James because the AC was once again acting up and the ceiling was once again caving in. And Jay was worried about leaving me home alone all day with a toddler AND a newborn (who still has nothing even resembling a feeding schedule). I assured him we'd be fine though. Lots of mommies stay home with their kids all day. Some mommies even have 3 or 4 or 5 kids together all day (right Karyn?), and they survive. Luckily, James and Cora made it WAY easy on me. After a late breakfast and some playing, I was nursing Cora, and James decided he wanted to sit up on the couch with us. Within 10 minutes he was completely passed out. Check out my adorable sleeping babes:

And how do I have time to be writing this right now? Because after lunch, James took another hour-long nap and has been an absolute angel since he woke up. And Cora has been asleep for HOURS! (In fact, I better go wake her to eat...)

ONE BOTTLE, TIMES TWO

Things sure are changing in our household...

Last night Cora had her first bottle of expressed breastmilk. She took it well enough, but only drank 1.5 of the 2.5 ounces Jay offered her. We tried again tonight and managed to get 2 oz in her, but she fought Jay the entire time (gas issues, mostly). We weren't expecting a fight - James took to the bottle immediately and downed 4.5 oz on his first attempt... Hopefully things will get better soon, since we need to get Cora comfortable with the bottle in the next few weeks before I return to work. We'll keep offering one bottle per day, at her theoretical bedtime (8:30pm currently, which she set for herself).

In other news, James is also taking just one bottle per day. Last weekend he had a change of heart over chocolate milk, and now drinks a full cup with breakfast and a full cup with lunch. Sometimes he even asks for seconds! On one occassion so far, we've been able to get him to drink a cup of cold, regular milk (no chocolate added). Success! And interestingly, the one sippy cup he has decided is acceptable for cold milk is the one with his name on it (from his Grand Aunt Margie).

He still has a full, warmed bottle at bedtime though, and we're in no hurry to cut it out of our routine. It helps him fall asleep, gets him to bed with a full tummy, and comforts him. Besides, he's so very adorable when he takes the bottle from my hand, climbs into bed, and calls his Daddy over to come give him the bottle.

FAMILY FITNESS

A fun little fitness center for kids (and toddlers and babies) opened locally this month, so we signed James up for a couple of Family Fit Nights and Mommy/Daddy & Me classes. The kid had an absolute blast at the first two sessions! We were impressed that he was attentive enough to stay in the circle and watch the instructor during the song and dance portions, and he even tried to do some of the moves himself (he can spin circles on command now, for example). And those moves he couldn't do on his own, he happily let me do for him. While the family night was fun (we got to play with a parachute and an air track), I preferred the Mommy & Me class this morning because it was tailored specifically for James' age group (12-24 months) and was far less crowded (the Family Fit Nights are all ages), and the equipment was more age appropriate. We'll definitely enjoy the rest of the sessions we signed up for this month, and we hope to continue in the fall if they decide to offer the classes on weekends.