Happy Birthday Jeanie!

Today, our baby girl is 1 month old!  I can't believe how quickly it has flown by.  The (relatively) sleepless nights must be taking their toll on me.

At one month old, Jeanie has definitely found her appetite!  She started out slowly, but will now eat anywhere from 6-8 oz (sometimes even more!) at once, especially in the hours before bed time.  She is starting to stay awake more during the day and is sleeping 3-5 hours a stretch at night.  Unfortunately, she wakes up around 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning, and by the time she thinks she's done eating, it's 6:00 and big sister is getting up.  This makes for some long mornings for mom!  It wouldn't be fair if I didn't thank Ethan here though.  Without him, I don't know what I would do.  He has been an amazing help, doing as much as he can (while still getting enough sleep himself) to get me as much rest as I can.  Thank you so much!

Like her big sister, Jeanie is also a pretty mellow baby (sometimes she has to be with big sister running around!)  As of right now, much to her Grandpa's delight, her eyes are blue.  This must be my Grampa's way of letting us know he's still with us (he's the only one on my side of the family that has blue eyes!)

A friend of mine was smart enough to pose her little guy by his stuffed animal so we could watch him grow.  So, following in her footsteps, here is Jeanie with her zebra.  I can't wait to see the difference the next months will bring!

The 99 Club

The 99th Percentile Club has a new member.  At Jeanie's well-baby check-up today, we got all of her stats and so far, she is following closely in big sister's footsteps.

Height: 21.75 in. (99th %)

Weight: 10 lb 12 oz (94 %)

Atta girl, Jeanie!

Welcome to the World Baby Girl!

She's here!  At 12:26 pm on February 28, 3012, we welcomed Jeanie Elaine into the world.  She weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs, 3 oz and 20.5 inches.

The process was much easier for mom this time around, however the transition to this big world was a little difficult for Miss Jeanie.  The NICU nurses had to be called in, however after getting some fluids (which the nurse compared to having a Gatorade after a marathon), she perked right up.  Not to be outdone by her big sister, Miss Jeanie has also come down with quite the case of jaundice.  After 3 days of rising bilirubin levels (and daily trips to the hospital for blood draws), she's turned the corner and her levels are coming down.

So far, she's been a great baby, sleeping most of the day and night, barely waking up to eat.  Her pediatrician says her increased bilirubin is to blame and that we should enjoy this while we can.  She's sleeping about 4 hours at a time over night, and, during the day, needs to be awakened to eat.

Big sister Evelyn is handling this big change quite well.  It helps having Bama and Papa here to give her all the love and attention she needs.  She loves her "Baby Jeanie" and really only struggles when it's time for Jeanie to eat.  Of course, that's when she wants all of mommy's attention.

So far, this family of four thing is going well.  It'll get interesting when our help leaves, however.  More posts and pictures to come!

"Playing Popcorns"

Given that I am 3 days away from my due date, I feel like I have been a real lazy mommy lately.  I let Evelyn watch more cartoons in the morning than I should, and she does a lot of playing by herself while mommy watches.  So, this morning, I decided to do a better job and we've had a great time!

First, we started out by making some yummy banana bread (I was too busy supervising to take a picture.)  Evelyn helped dump in the flour, mash up the bananas and dump those in too.  She wanted to help with the eggs, but mommy's not quite ready to let her do that yet.

While the bread was baking, we turned on some Hawaiian music, put on her grass skirt and lei, and did the hula!  I took a picture, but for some reason, it hasn't shown up in my inbox yet, so it's out there in cyberspace somewhere.  The hula was good for about 5 minutes and then Evelyn was over it.

Finally, I decided to be brave.  On trips to children's museums, Evelyn LOVES water tables and bean/corn tables - any table where she can scoop and dump anything from one container to another container.  After making bags for "bean bag" toss, I had lots of popcorn kernels left over.  So, here is Evelyn having a great time "playing popcorns."  She sat and scooped, and poured and dumped for over 30 minutes!  For those of you that know Evelyn, you know how much she loves to eat - mac 'n cheese is her favorite.  I couldn't even pull her away from the popcorn for her favorite food!  She became hysterical when she was told it was time for lunch, but the promise of more "popcorns" after nap time finally did the trick.  Guess what we'll be doing from now on!

Mommy's Little Helper

A few weeks ago, in preparation to have our carpets cleaned, we took down the baby gate.  At 2, Evelyn has mastered the stairs, so we don't really need the gate, per se, but with the layout of our house, we were able to use the gate to confine her to the family room.  This came in real handy when showering, cleaning, cooking dinner, etc.  Once we realized how much easier it is to go up/down the stairs without that dang baby gate, we decided not to put it back up.

So, one morning, while Evelyn appeared to be completely occupied by her cartoon, I thought I would just run upstairs real quickly and take a quick little shower.  I snuck upstairs without her noticing, got the water turned on, and as soon as I stepped in "Mommy!  Evelyn shower!"  So, the next 5 minutes consisted of the shower curtain being opened, closed, opened, closed... you get the picture.  I finally convinced Evelyn to sit on the floor and play with her bath toys (or so I thought.)  Then, a strange silence fell over the bathroom.  I opened the curtain, and this is what I saw:

Picture Dump!

It's been a few weeks since I've posted and I have some fun pictures to share.  So rather that devoting a single blog entry to each picture, I will just give the quick run-down.  I know I have time on my hands, but not that much time.

Feb. 2 - Ethan decided to go out with some friends after work, foiling my plans for dinner.  So, my best girl and I went on a date.  I know these opportunities will be coming to an end shortly, so I am trying to make the best of it.  Given lots and lots of choices, Evelyn decided on pizza for dinner.  She and I headed out to our favorite pizza restaurant (not Ethan's favorite, however!)  We shared a yummy Mediterranean salad (this girl LOVES Kalamata olives and Feta cheese!) and Margherita pizza.  Afterwards, she let me have a few bites of her gelato.  Such a fun date night for the two of us.  I can't wait for the next one.

Feb. 4 - Just days after our beautiful 60 degree weather and afternoons at the park, we were hit with a winter storm.  Evelyn and Daddy braved the elements until Evelyn decided she no longer wanted to wear her mittens but wanted to dig in the snow.  Needless to say, snow time was cut a little short by a little girl with cold hands.

Feb. 5, Super Bowl Sunday - We made the trek out to Ethan's sister's house to watch the big game (although, I can honestly say, I didn't catch much of the game - I was too busy eating and just watching these two!)  Cousin Addie got a whole set of Disney Princess dresses for Christmas, so the entire evening, the girls were all decked out.  I just happened to catch Snow White and "Sleepy the Booty" standing still.

Feb. 6 - Getting dressed in the morning has become somewhat of a battle of wills at our house.  Evelyn is OBSESSED with dresses these days, but most of her's are summer dresses.  This is what happens when you give her the choice of dress, tights and shoes to wear.  Future fashionista?

Feb. 11 - Little by little, we're getting ready for #2 to arrive.  We've got the car seat out and the bases in the cars.  Evelyn was quite excited to see her old car seat.  After convincing her that she no longer fit in her seat, she decided it would be better if her baby sat in it.  What you can't see is that she's got her baby all buckled in too!  She's going to be such a good big sister.

A Day at the Park

Who would have thought, that on February 1st, in Iowa, Evelyn and I would be spending the afternoon at the park?  We've had some crazy weather lately (60 degrees, 3 days in a row!) but I'm not complaining.  It sure is nice to get outside and get some fresh air.

 Since our neighborhood park is only about 3 blocks away, Evelyn much prefers walking over the stroller these days.

Evelyn wanted to climb the stairs, but wanted nothing to do with the slide - at least until we went to the bigger play structure and she saw the "big kids" playing on one.

 

Just a fun shot of Evelyn as she was sitting on my shoulder, walking to get a "drink a water."  Never mind the chocolate around her mouth - it's how we got her dressed to go outside.

 

Playing on the See-Saw... of course, Mommy was at the other end pushing her up and down.  Where's Daddy when you need him?

 

She was so proud of herself when she went down the slide without any help from Mommy!  Such a big girl!

Unfortunately, there's a winter storm moving in over the weekend, so this may be our last trip to the park for a while.  Now back to the search for more indoor fun ideas.