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.

DINNER OR FINGERPAINTING?

Tonight's dinner was take-out from McAllister's. Good ol' southern-style mac-n-cheese and applesauce for James. Think he liked it much?...

That's a little piece of macaroni up his nose, by he way.

Why does he have to put all his food in his hair these days? Please tell me this is a short-lived phase...

And yes, he went straight from the highchair to the bathtub!

ALL ABOUT CORA: 1-MONTH-OLD

Wow, that has to have been the absolute fastest month of my life!

My baby doll is now 1-month-old, and not so little anymore. We estimated her at 9 pounds on our home scale today. We'll see what her official stats are at her well baby exam next week, but that gives us a good guess on her progress, anyway. And if we're correct, then she's gained a whopping 3 lbs since she was born!

Here are some comparisons of Cora at 1-day-old vs. 4-weeks-old:

As you can guess by the weight gain, Cora is still an excellent eater. She really is "chunking up". In fact, my brother teased that she's going to be a sumo wrestler after I sent him this photo (beefcake arms, squishy cheeks, double chin, and a muffin-top belly... you gotta love growing babies!):

While Cora is still eating well, her nursing habits have changed. She doesn't cluster feed as much in the evenings (generally just 2-3 feedings between 5-9pm now), but she now "snacks" in the morning (nursing a little here and there from 8-10am). I've decided to start trying this week to get her into a bit more of a routine (since she'll need to be on a more defined schedule by the time I go back to work), but it isn't going very well so far... When she wants to eat, she wants to EAT, and there is no delaying her. To assist with this effort, Jay has started getting up with her at night whenever she wakes earlier than the 3-hour mark (that's 3 hours from the start of one feeding to the start of the next, not between feedings). He has only had to do this twice so far, but he has been quite successful at calming her during these wakings, so we don't think she's waking up hungry. It's just gas. She'll still take the paci now and then, from Jay (though he has to be very persuasive about it), but never from me (she honestly acts like I'm gagging her and breaking her heart - it's pitiful).

In general, Cora is still sleeping really well at night, just not in the stretches I was used to during her first 2 weeks. She generally "goes down for the night" between 11pm and midnight (or, if we're lucky, she goes to sleep when James does, at 8pm, then wakes at 11pm to nurse), nurses for an hour sometime between 2-4am, then wakes anywhere from 6-8am to nurse again and start her day. If bring her to bed with me for the morning nursing session, she'll go back to sleep for an hour or so (she already shows an affinity for sleeping in with her Mama), but I only do that on the weekends (when Jay is there to blockade the other side of the bed). Also, I'm finally convincing her that rocking her to sleep in the glider is an acceptable alternative to walking and swaying, which is awesome because 1) it was wreaking havoc on my back in the evenings and 2) our floors are creaky and I've been worried about waking James with my middle-of-the-night pacings.

We're still getting about the same amount of awake time with her every day, but the hours have shifted. She now stays awake longer in the morning and less in the afternoon. This has been quite convenient though, since she now usually sleeps through our dinner (which makes cooking dinner and feeding James much easier). She is spending more and more time playing on the floor, checking out her play mat toys (and even unintentionally grabbing them already) and working her muscles during tummy time (we think she's getting awfully strong, awfully fast):

Really, as long as you give Cora what she wants, she is a very calm and happy baby. If not, then watch out - our girl is not afraid to tell you when she is displeased! In fact, she sometimes gets so angry that she gets "spittin' mad" (I have had milk bubbles and baby slobber sprayed in my face on many occassions)... She sometimes sounds like a hissing cat. Other times like a gremlin. Luckily, Jay and I are learning our own individual tricks to quickly remedy her displeasure. She dislikes being swaddled (and we even went 3 nights in a row without swaddling, just to test it out), but we're still doing it. She fights it for a few minutes, kicking and stretching and grunting and spitting, but once she settles in, we're good for a few hours of sleep.

We're just very much in love with our little girl, and looking forward to her continued growth and development (because now we know that babies just get more and more fun with each passing month). And as the months pass, Jay will be taking portraits of Cora, just as he did for James. And I will be taking comparison photos of her every month on her birthday, wearing the same bloomers (I have them in 2 sizes), laying on her changing pad. Here she is at 1-month-old:

WISH I KNEW...

...what she was thinking

HALFWAY

Cora is 4-weeks-old today, marking the halfway point of my maternity leave. Boo. I'm already dreading the day that I no longer get to spend my afternoons like this:

BIG BROTHER JAMES

Many of you have been asking us "How is James adjusting to Cora?"

Well, while James mostly ignores his baby sister (and we don't blame him - he is only 16-months-old, she is still a newborn "baby lump" and thus no fun to play with yet, and he is used to being around babies of all ages at daycare), he does show fleeting interest on occassion. He likes to "pet" her head (just like he does with the cats, and he's getting pretty good at being "Gentle James") and point out her body parts (nose, belly button, ears, toes, and eyes - yikes!), and he'll give her a kiss if we ask him to ("Can sister have a kiss?"). He's interested in her things (blankets, burp cloths, play mat, etc.) and likes to "borrow" or "share" them. He often goes straight to her stroller looking for her when he wakes in the morning or from a nap, or when he gets home from daycare. He says "baby", and he points to her all the time. And while this is all very sweet and shows his promise of being a great big brother, he still really prefers to have his parents all to himself. He'll often choose whichever one of us is not holding her to be his playmate. And as soon as Cora switches hands or gets put down, James is right there asking to be picked up. To remedy this, we are making every effort to give him as much one-on-one time as possible. We're rotating bath and bedtime duties. And when Cora is contently sleeping in her stroller, you can bet that James is reveling in the full attention of both his parents.

A DROP IN THE BUCKET

For the past few days, James has been diligently filling Jay's water bucket with rocks. Why? Because it's fun to watch them sink. And even better when they splash.

Should be equally as fun for Jay to put the rocks back in their place, right?

(NOTE: We promise never to leave James unattended with the water bucket, so don't worry)