It's hard having a baby

...according to Jayden.  At dinner tonight Dakota was crying because she really wanted to go to sleep, but couldn't and so decided she needed to nurse.  Carmen was on the phone and I was trying to get Jayden to finish up his food, so Dakota was being forced to wait a few more minutes than she wanted, and was therefore not happy.  So she was crying.  And Jayden said "it's hard having a baby.  I don't like all this crying."  I actually agree with him, it IS hard having a baby!

Dakota has had some struggles.  She is much fussier than I remember Jayden being.  So either she actually is fussier, or I just don't remember Jayden.  Both are entirely possible.  At the same time, she's a champ.  Probably once a day at least she goes four hours in between feedings.  Which is pretty amazing at three weeks old.  And also, it's also as long as I can go in between feedings without worrying about impacting my milk supply.  That has allowed me to get about two hours of sleep in a row, which has been a blessing, considering she is feeding every 2 to 3 hours the rest of the time - which means at most I can get about an hour of sleep at a time.

She looks like she's smiling - I'm sure she's not, or it's just when she's pooping, but occasionally I've caught her looking at me or Jayden or Carmen with a little smile.  We put her in the bath with Jayden tonight and she was so pleasant.  It was very sweet, until Jayden squeezed out the washcloth in Dakota's face.  She was not so excited about that, and nor was I, since she tried to drink the water.

She's also pretty good on tummy time - she moves her arms and legs and moves herself around, when she can.

Jayden was home last Thursday and Friday, so we got a four day family weekend.  We had a good time, but everything was pretty low-key.  Fourth of July really could have been any other Saturday - not a bad thing necessarily, but I did feel a little bad we didn't take Jayden to a parade or fair or something.  I keep telling myself "next year - next year will be better."

Here is our last few days in pictures:

Sleeping on my lap.  A picture I took to send to my friend who is due in a couple weeks and who just had her last day of work today!  I was trying to make her feel better, by showing her that soon her life would be all about sitting on a couch with a baby on her lap!

This is what she thinks of me giving her a pacifier instead of nursing her.  ;)

We can't remember what he was doing, but to us it looked like the Karate Kid.  That was not what he thought he was doing, but it was a great pose nonetheless.
On a side note, we found a child care center/preschool that I think we're going to move Jayden to and where we'll send Dakota in October.  It's not exactly perfect timing - they may not have an opening until after I'm back at work - but we'll make it work. And if it means I need to take more time off?  I'll make that sacrifice!

This series is called eating sushi (shoo-she) with Jayden.  We have him a piece of a roll (a California roll with salmon on top), and he asked for just the salmon.  So we ordered salmon sashimi for him and he ate every last piece.  Such an awesome kid.

Fourth of July!
(maybe overkill on the pictures - but I figure I'm playing to the right audience)

Bright eyes!

Two kids in patriotic stripes on my lap.  

Getting ready to splash.

Swimming with Daddy.

Jasmine enjoying the sunshine too.

Putting my feet in the pool.

Relaxing in her ferry boat sun hat.  We had a nice rest by the pool while the boys splashed.  

Jayden is one creative boy.  He has a lot of "friends" in "Norf Carolina" (which, by the way, takes NINE airplanes to get to) who have done a lot of things - like go up mountains, fly, surf, etc.  He takes a lot of things from stories he's heard and from shows he's watched, but also makes a lot of it up.  It's pretty awesome.  He also has some good songs that he comes up with every once in a while.

One more photo from yesterday, and my new wallpaper on my phone:

Jayden really wanted to be in the picture with Dakota, but was sitting in an awkward position and didn't really understand how to move to get in the picture properly.  But I kind of love it for it's awkwardness.

We had a great time watching the U.S. Women's Soccer team win with the World Cup on Sunday.  It was a lot of fun, and Jayden learned a lot from watching the games.  He has now added "corner kicks" into our soccer games in the backyard.  And he also (sort of) understands that we live in Santa Ana, but also in the U-S-A.  I haven't thrown California into the mix yet - we'll get there eventually.

And one last feature.  Because my sister is AMAZING, she had a bunch of friends and family decorate onesies for Dakota.  Not all of them were 0-3 months, but she's worn the ones that are.  And here is a bunch of pictures to show how talented my friends and family are!

This last one is the one that Jayden decorated.  I added Dakota's name on there, and discovered just how difficult it is to draw on onesies with fabric pens.  Which makes my family and friends even more talented, even if they did use stencils or other tools.  

AND.  The construction on our house is scheduled to be completed a week from tomorrow.  I don't believe that will actually happen, but there is definitely progress.  The outside is just about completed, except for the driveway and the front walk.  But it's all painted, the garage doors are up and the scaffolding is gone.

We painted the garage doors to match our front door, and we love them!

Inside, the paint is almost done - just two rooms left - and the carpet and other flooring will be installed this week, either Thursday or Friday.  The downstairs bedroom and bathroom are completely done, and the laundry room will be done shortly.  The upstairs bathroom is almost done - the countertop and sink should be installed this week also.  The last rooms to be finished will be the theater room and the small office in our bedroom, which is fine, but I am just so excited to have the workers gone from our house, and to be able to put things away so that our house looks somewhat normal again.  We'll see how long it takes me to get there, because I'm also hoping to reorganize and clean out as I put things away.  I just said that to Carmen and he nodded and said "yep" while staring at his computer, so who knows what he actually heard.  He may have thought I said "let's go out to dinner tomorrow."  You never know.