Sister love

Sophie and Emily are definitely becoming fast friends. Sophie is such a fabulous big sister it just melts my heart sometimes. She loves to get Baby Emily's "paci" for her when she is crying and she loves to give her kisses and lean in and dangle her hair on her to try and tickle her. In the morning when Sophie wakes up she used to be so excited to see me and say "mommy!" with such glee. Now, she barely hugs me or acknowledges me some days and just says "BABY EMILY!!" and can't wait to see her. Sophie is often found saying/screaming "Baby Emily!!!! Is she awake????" about 3 inches from her little face while she is sleeping. But honestly I think Baby Emily is getting pretty darn used to the noise level in our house at this point. I am truly so proud of Sophie and the wonderful Big Sister she has already become. It is going to be such a hoot to watch these two in action when Emily gets walking and talking, too. Or, I will poke my eyeballs out with toothpicks because there will be double the noise, mess and drama in our world. Either way - it will be wonderful...

In other news, we took Emily in to see the pediatrician this week because she has been spitting up A LOT. Sure, babies spit up but we thought that maybe this kind of spit up (where we are changing her outfit three times in a 10 minute timespan because of all the spit up) might be unusual but apparently according to the pediatrician, it's not. Maybe we have just forgotten how much babies spit up. We don't remember Sophie spitting up quite this much but who knows... We don't remember much of those early weeks and months with Sophie to tell you the truth (which is of course how we ended up getting ourselves in this position of worrying about spit-up again). The really great news is that Emily weighs 10 pounds and is 22 inches long so she is growing like crazy. She definitely looks different, too. We are starting to see how much of her own little self she is already and we can see glimpses of what she might look like in a few months or years.

Overall, life is good. Jim is working his tail off to get the pool open for the 4th of July. Our friends the GodSnedikers are in town. We have been able to visit with lots of family lately. And my Grandma and Grandpa MacDougall and Grammy are coming up for a visit in July so we can't wait for them to see how big Sophie has gotten and meet Baby Emily.

Happy 1 Month Birthday to Emily

Yesterday was baby Emily's one month birthday!! Happy Birthday sweetest girl!! She had her one month check-up and weighs 9 lbs, 2 ounces and is now 20 and 3/4 inches long. The doctor said she is doing great. She has been spitting up a lot and has a touch of baby acne but none of that is out of the ordinary for her age. She is a happy little monkey and we all love her to pieces!!!

Sophia's Joys

Hats, pretty dresses and playing outside with her Daddy. Nothing makes Sophie any happier...

Happy 3 Week Birthday, Emily

Happy Three Week Birthday to our sweet little Emily Anne!!! I can't believe you are three weeks old already! And even though it's only been three weeks it feels like we have had you in our lives forever... We all love you so much sweet little Baby Bird!!

First Family Trip to the Shore

Ok, so this is how you know we're different parents this time around... We decided to take the girls to the shore for an impromptu mini-family trip. Yes we thought it'd be "fun" to pack up a toddler and a two week old newborn and all their various and sundry accoutrement for a little overnight in Ocean City. (Trust me, we NEVER EVER would have done this with Sophie when she was two weeks old...) While the packing was daunting and the quarters were a bit cramped for the four of us and all our gear, we ended up having a total blast. Sophie had such a great time swimming in the hotel pool and walking the boards and playing on the beach. She even got to go on several rides all by herself this year and could not have been more excited or pleased with herself for being big enough to ride them now. We also got to hang out with GGMom and Doris Anne who happened to be down in Atlantic City so that was a total extra bonus to have them around, too. And we ended up spending two nights (because once we got everything packed up an in the car we did not want to have to repack it up and leave the next morning). A good time was had by all!! Now we can't wait to go back again when DeeRee and PopPop have their place later this summer.

In other news, Jim started back to work again this week which was pretty sad for all of us. It has been so wonderful for the four of us to be together these past two weeks. Thankfully, DeeRee is off this week and has been helping out which is just fantastic. I got to take Sophie to our Lansdowne Library playgroup yesterday. It was great that she could see her friends and play and have a little bit of a return to our normal routine.

Emily is doing well. Getting bigger and changing everyday. She did really well down the shore and seemed to enjoy being carried around in the Maya wrap. She slept on me on the beach and even made it up to the boardwalk and slept on me walking along there most of the time too. On the second day she seemed to be a little overstimulated (gee, I wonder why) by about 7:30pm so she had a rough time getting to sleep but she was finally asleep by about 11pm so that's not too bad. And, amazingly being in one room together helped Sophie get used to Emily's crying so much that Sophie slept right through Emily's crying spell. Cool, huh?

Memorial Day with the Girlies

We had our first Memorial Day as a family of four on Monday. We took the girls to our little Lansdowne parade which was great fun! They had on matching flag dresses and got to ride up in the new double stroller! Emily slept the whole ride and Sophie loved getting to ride in the new stroller with her little sister. It was a great little town parade and we got to see lots of our neighbors, too. Sophie got a lollipop from one of the cars throwing candy so it was pretty much a perfect family outing. Then, Monday night we took the girls to our friends' house for a BBQ which was also great. It was so nice to see our friends we haven't seen in a while and introduce them to Emily. Sophie had such a blast wearing her new summer halter dress her Aunt Dina gave her and getting to run around with all her friends outside in her barefeet for hours! All in all it was a pretty amazing day for our little family. Of course, the next day Emily had a really hard time settling all day. My theory is that all that stimulation was probably a bit much for a little newborn but eventually she settled into her groove again and all was well in the world.

In other news, Emily had her one week weight check in and she weighs 7 lbs, 10 ounces!! I'm thrilled! Not only has she regained her birthweight but she's packed on an extra 9 ounces, too! Hooray!! We also had a very nice visit from GGMom, Doris Anne and cousins Deb and Angela who came to play with Big Sister Sophie and to meet Baby Emily. What a great day!