Nearly Christmas...

So it's nearly Christmas and I missed posting about Halloween and Thanskgiving. Rather than type anything I'll let the photos speak for themselves... :D

My baby girl is 6 months-old...

At her 6 month well-check she weighed in at 17lbs 5 oz and 26" long. (Just to throw in a comparison...@ 12 months Alexander was 27" long.) She is pretty much in the 75% for both. Doing very well. Lia is growing up fast! She has the most cheerful personality and rarely lets things upset her...finding comfort in her thumb when things get "too much" for her. Alexander is really good at keeping her entertained so it seems as if she is laughing all of them time. Lia started eating cereal around 5 months and does really well with that. We just started her on other baby foods this week. Once we get past the "testing for allergies" stage, we will make her food as we did Alexander's...in the food processor. Speaking of allergies...we did discover that she is allergic to milk. But, it is a seriously mild allergy. We gave her some Enfamil (milk based forumla) mixed in with he cereal and her face broke out. Other than that, she had no other adverse reactions. So, we'll be staying away from that until she's about a year and try it again. Lia has rolled over once, (although nearly rolls over attempting to reach for things often) yet continues to end up in different directions in her crib at night. She is, however, sitting on her own. A feat she achieved just this past Sunday. Physically, she appears to be advancing faster than Alexander and soon will be crawling. (From a sitting position she reaches for things in front of her, ends up on her tummy and ultimately winds up kicking her feet to try to go...) I fear teeth are not far behind. And I even believe her first 2-syallable word will be coming soon...(trying to get the "Mama" thing in her head...) lol

Alexander is 2!

It's really hard to believe that it's been 2 years since we were blessed with our dear Alexander. Unfortunately, I wasn't around on his birthday (9/18) because I had rehearsal for the play I'm doing that opens up next weekend, Fuddy Meers, but I made a video message for him to watch when he got home. Needless to say, I will make sure that doesn't happen again. We are having a family (and very close friends) party for him next weekend.

Alexander has grown a lot in 2 years. At his 2-yr well-check he was weighing in at 25 1/4 lbs. and measuring to 32 3/4" tall. He has moved into the 25%! The pediatrician said he has a perfect BMI for a toddler... :D The boy is definitely growing. It's so cool to see the things he used to be able to walk under and can no longer. He climbs into the truck with ease now as well as onto our bed. Alexander can walk up and down stairs like a big boy... He actually came up without anyone behind him, as I looked on from the top, busy with Lia. (He got tired of waiting for his Dad, and even asked me if he could come up before he did on his own.) He has become a little man, that's for sure... And he's an excellent big brother! He loves Lia so much and is quite protective. Mary Ann, the sitter, says he will barely let anyone touch her...shielding her saying "MINE!" Speaking of "saying" his vocabulary is quite extensive, although we only get 2 to 3 word sentences...mostly all begining with, "No..." lol And I'm sad to report that I child is suffering from the "Terrible Twos." It's almost unbearable at times. BIG tantrums over the silliest, smallest things. Leonard and I have learned to just ignore him and then he gets himself together...distracted by something else. If it gets too bad he, of course, gets threatened (or "corrected") with the spoon. Despite the tantrums, he's a pretty good boy and listens and follows complex directions quite well for a boy his age. Alexander loves animals and knows his shapes (even the "more difficult" ones.) They work on the alaphabet and other sing-a-long songs at the sitter's. His latest infactuation is with dinosaurs and is currently obsessed with Land Before Time. He's going to be a "Sharp Tooth" for Halloween. ;)

Happy, Happy Birthday to my Sweet, Little Boy.

4 months and the Zoo...

Lia's 4 month stas:

15lbs 13oz (90%)
25" long (85%)
16.75" head circum

Lia has been working on her abs by doing mini "sit-ups" since she was about 2 months old... lol She will be sitting on her own here really soon and the doctor already cleared her to eat rice cereal...but also said she didn't need it yet. (So I'm going to wait another month...feeding solid food takes so much work! lol) We'll have a "Lia Eats Green Beans" video before we know it. ;) No teeth yet...but she's gearing up for it..much drooling...and we definitely have a thumb sucker.

Lia talks all of the time. She's actually started to kind of "growl" when she babbles...very good at playing with her voice. Lia just started to reach for things, unlike Alexander who was reaching for toys when he was 2 months old, but remains quite aware of everything around her.

Lia is a really happy baby and very content. She even has been sleeping through the night, in her crib, for about a month now. (Alexander didn't start sleeping in his crib until 12 months...and then he just started sleeping through the night 4 months ago....................)

We took the kids to the zoo a couple of weeks ago. Alexander LOVED it. His favorite part was actually the aquarium. Other than that, the elephant is his favorite animal. We will return again soon, when it's not so hot. Nina, from the PBS Sprout "Good Night Show" was there, too. So we got to listen to her and got a few pics too. It actually was a really good day!











Here is a video of Lia "talking" at the zoo.

3 months and July 4th

My baby girl just recently weighed in at 15lbs! I can't believe it. I remember thinking that 15lbs was A LOT for a 3 month-old to weigh. And lo and behold... LOL

Lia is 15lbs 2oz (95%), 24" long (75%) and has a 16" head circumference.

Lia is a really big girl...Pretty much trying to sit up by herself every day. Extremely happy baby...always smiling and nearly laughing. And she sleeps through the night!

We couldn't be more blessed!

My niece and nephew are in town for the summer (my sister is soon to follow) so we took them to our buddies' house for a bonfire the night before July 4th. As always, it was a great time spent with friends. It was actually the first bonfire Marcel and Tatyanna had been to...and they had a blast making hotdogs, etc.

Baptism on Father's Day

Lia and Isabella, (our niece, by way of Leonard's brother Jeff,) were baptized today. The Baptism was beautiful and it was a beautiful day. It was pretty neat that they got baptized on Father's Day too.




However, wanted to focus this post on Leonard. He is an AMAZING father! Some times I sit and stare at him playing with Alexander and just smiling, "Thinking to myself, how did I get so blessed?" He's really good with Lia, too. Although you can tell she's going to be a "Daddy's girl." He's already starting to treat her differently. LOL

This one is for you, baby! Thanks for being such a wonderful father. I love you!!!!

Working Mother

I returned to work on Monday, June 1st. It's been a rough 2 weeks. I had to work the first Saturday I got back because of a massive restack of cubicles...(over 350 people moved) and I was responsible for connecting the phones. There were 2 other people doing the phones...well, 1 and a half...the half was a guy who was covering for me when I was out, so there was some things he couldn't do.

It's a different world...working with 2 children under 2. I suppose it will take some work getting used to it. All I know is I am exhausted.

When I come home for work, I'm literally standing for another hour trying to wash and sterilze bottles and my materials to my pump. Then I try to feed myself before feeding Lia, all while I make sure I spend some time with Alexander...and Leonard. Before I go to sleep, I have to pack everything for the next day because doing it in the morning is damn near impossible. That takes another hour and half. I beat myself up even more in the mornings because after I get the 3 of us ready, by myself, (necessary to avoid arguments with the DH,) pack the car and drop them off at the sitter's, I head to the gym for about 45 minutes before work. And then the cycle continues...

The good thing is, Lia is starting to sleep through the night and she is still pretty easy going. I think she's going to be able to start sleeping in her crib next week. Alexander was sleeping on/with me for months...and later in the pack n' play in our room before he started sleeping in his crib by about 12 months. This is a big relief for me, eventhough she gets up at least once, I still get to lay down in my bed. A good night's sleep makes all the difference to my days...

I can't sit here and complain too much, though... I know there are many mothers who do this by themselves. I have no idea how... I would go insane.

Although it's a little easier than I thought it would be, it's still pretty difficult working with 2 under 2. I plan to become a pro. :)

Alexander's New Moves

This is some good stuff...

Bubbles Anyone?

For the past 2 days, I have been home without children. These are my last 2 days of Maternity Leave. I'd have to admit, it's pretty nice being alone. Yesterday, I really didn't take advantage... I cleaned house and went to the gym and before I knew it, it was time to pick them up. Today, I decided it was going to be about me. Other than getting the oil changed, I didn't do any errands nor housework. I took a nap, surfed the web, watched TV and mostly importantly, I took a bubble bath for the first time ever in our jacuzzi tub. We have lived here for 14 months and have never used the tub. Such a shame! For the most part, it was a really relaxing experience...

I just totally overdid it on the bubbles. It was something straight out of a sitcom! I wasn't sure how much was enough, as the stream of water as the tub was filling didn't produce many bubbles, so I just kept adding more. Well, once I turned on the jets, the bubbles appeared. There I was, lying in the tub and the bubbles were rising above my head. I laughed out loud at the sight. While still in the tub, I pulled the stopper on the drain and added water to try to make them subside. It was truly comical. Here is a picture taken AFTER I got out of the tub:



I will defintely be trying this again in the near future. Some times we just need to take time for the bubbles.

8 weeks

Lia is 8 weeks today. We go for her 2 month well-check next Friday. It's really amazing how fast it all goes by. I remember how fast it was with Alexander, and just as soemeone told me, it is faster with the second. Lia is already smiling, coos and gurgles often, has been holding her head up with ease for weeks and is growing into a BIG, healthy baby. She has grown out of all of her 0-3 month clothing and is now wearing 3-6 month and 6 months clothes.

She went to the babysitter for the first time yesterday, for a trial run. Other than not taking too well to the bottle, she did pretty well.

I go back to work on Monday. And for as much as I simply adore my beautiful baby girl, I welcome the break from the constant care. Sure wish there was another alternative to working, though...

2nd Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 2nd wedding anniversary. We celebrated by staying at the Hyatt, (where we stayed on our wedding night,) on Sunday night. We wanted to go to "our" cabin at Hocking Hills, but we would've had to stay more than 1 night...and that just wasn't possible this year.

We began our night with dinner and drinks with really good friends, Julie and Kim. Upon reflection, we realized it was quite fitting as they were instrumental in making our wedding day success with all of their advice, support and assistance in many matters of the event. We met up at Brio and were greeted with a really good bottle of Pinot Noir, courtesy of Julie. Leonard and I ordered food...as Julie and Kim already had dinner and were simply there for good company. The food was great and we had another bottle of wine and some good convo with our friends.

From there went to the Hyatt, where we got a room for the night and checked in before dinner. There is a Sports Bar on the ground level, where we played a couple of games of pool and drank a couple of Jack and Cokes. We actually had another bottle of wine in the room, given to us by very dear friends. We decided to open that up and we drank and sat out on the patio outside of the sports bar and reflected on how wonderful our life is. A lot has happened in the past 2 years. Not to long after the wedding Alexander arrived, then I bought my truck, next came the house, I left my job of nearly 12 years and most recently, the addition of Lia. Kind of surreal... But, any way you look at it, it's a wonderful life.

The night was amazing. Very relaxing and comfortable. The next morning, Leonard missed the children so, that it was decided we would check out and get them. I, on the other hand, was not ready to go home. I wanted a few more hours alone. Nothing I said could convince him otherwise. As he so matter-of-factly put it, "we are just prolonging the inevitable." We were home by 12:30pm.

Another anniversary in the history books. Can't wait to be blogging about many, many more!

First Smiles

So Lia is now 7 weeks old. Time has flown.

Yesterday morning I got 2 consecutive smiles from her, within a minute of each other. Alexander didn't have a genuine, "non-gas provoked" smile until he was about 3 months.

All I had to say in my high-pitched voice was:

"Hi Pretty Girl!"

Be a BEE!

Alexander with one of the Bees we used for Lia's room... Leonard was chasing him, like a bee, and then we asked him to be a bee...

Fatherhood...

This is a commercial from fatherhood.gov. First time I saw this I instantly thought "This is Leonard in about 5 years..." Too funny!



Leonard is a wonderful daddy! If you had asked me 6 or so years ago when I met him if he had this kind of potential, I would have never believed it.

Mother's Day 2009

My 2nd Mother's Day, now down in the history books. (Didn't really forsee having 2 children by now, though. CRAZY.) It was a pretty good day. I went to mass with Lia, my mother and brother... Then to the movies later with my mom and brother to see Star Trek while Leonard kept the children. (First time I had been out without either of them in 5 weeks.) It was so nice! Leonard bought me a new camera (since mine accidentally got destroyed by Alexander in Leonard's plain sight only the day before) and the DVD set of Season 1 of Angel. (I just recently got into it since I've been on ML.)

Interestingly enough, I spoke with a friend, who is a mother, and asked how her day was and she simply replied, "It's just another day." As a new mother, it's still pretty cool to be told how much you are appreciated. I hope when I've been a mother for more than 15 years that I don't feel that way.

My sister poated this comment on my MySpace page, I thought it was pretty neat:

95 Percentile!

Believe it or not, it's been a month since Lia entered the world. At her 4 week well-check we discovered she is in the 95th percentile for weight, weighing in at 11 lbs. 3 oz. Lia gained 4 lbs. in a month! I never thought I would hear ninety-something percentile and my children's names in the same sentence. lol It's crazy. She is 21.5 inches long, placing her in the 55th percentile and her head circumference is 14 and 7/8. (not sure what %.)

Lia is just as "alert" as Alexander was, but is noticeably much stronger. She already supports her head effortlessly, quite often, and also tries to pull her head up when lying in the Boppy. She is following figures as they go by and doesn't appear to mind being on her tummy yet.

Needles to say, she is a blessing and a great addition to the family!