And a little more

I have forgotten to include the "official" updates about Dakota's and Jayden's development.  Dakota is pretty much right on track - with her staying awake a little longer, starting to smile and starting her coos and gurgles.  Tonight when Carmen got home, he was holding her while I played with Jayden and she was going "ooooo," and "urggggg," etc.  It was very cute.  I'll have to capture it on video so I can share.  Hopefully tomorrow.

And I wanted to share one more rain dancing video:

And a few more pictures from our evening:

Silliness, but blurry silliness since he moves super-fast.

More silliness.

And more silliness!
It's amazing how small Jayden looks when Carmen is holding him sometimes.

And finally, we finished our project for preschool.

Jayden's "All about me" pages

Is it Monday?

I sort of hate to ask that questions since so many people are working right now, but I definitely keep forgetting what day it is.  At least Jayden's and Carmen's schedule helps me out somewhat.  So I did figure out that today is Monday.

We're making progress, but it's slow.  After a few nights where we got three or four hours between feedings, Dakota decided to switch it up and give me only about two hours between each feeding - 8ish, 11ish, 1 am, 3 am, 5 am, etc.  It was pretty brutal, especially because she doesn't nurse and just go back to sleep.  She nurses and then we have to get her back to sleep.  Which is not easy, especially considering her gas and fussiness issues.

And then last night, she nursed at 10:45 pm and then not again until about 3:30 am.  It did take me until about 12:30 am to get her settled and asleep, but that still means I got about three hours of sleep.  Woo hooo!  At 3:30 she barely woke up, so I nursed her and pretty much put her back down after burping her for a minute.  That meant she was back asleep by about 4:30, and so was I.  And then at 5:30 she decided to fuss again.  I thought I could get Carmen to settle her because I couldn't imagine she was hungry again - and I actually think she wasn't hungry, but we couldn't get her to settle either.  So I fed her again at 6:00 am.  And then she took a nap for an hour or so, and then was awake and pleasant for about an hour!  I fed her, after dropping Jayden off at Juju's, and now she's napping, in her pack n play, all by herself.  That is where she "beats" Jayden; I don't think he slept in anything but our arms or a bouncer or swing until he was four months old.  I'm hoping this means the transition to a crib will be better. We'll see.

She can be very charming while she is awake - making cute noises and faces.  She's even given me a few pretty giant smiles (and not just while she's pooping).

This is a tiny example while she's sleeping.  She's actually given me a couple pretty giant toothless grins, but they're hard to capture because they usually appear when she's looking at my face, not at the back of my phone/camera.  I'll keep trying.

Jayden still asks every day if he's going to school, and if not, when he's going to school.  He's ridiculously excited.  We have our projects to do (an "about me" picture collage that we get to put together) so we're going to work on that today.  He requested pictures of: him swimming, him playing soccer, him running "realllly fast," him on a slide, Paw Patrol, Lightning McQueen and marbles.  So apparently that's Jayden in a nutshell.  I had to suggest that he include a picture of his family.  :)  I'll put up a picture of the finished product.

We've had a beautiful weekend of summer rain and thunderstorms.  Unfortunately the humidity is insane - it has been 90+ degrees and rainy for the last three days.  The good thing about summer rain is it's still warm enough to play outside when it's raining.  Yesterday, after his nap, we had watched a couple of shows, and needed to find something else to do.  He really wanted to run around, even though he had run around at a birthday party (for his swim partner Maxwell's younger brother) and at soccer class.  So I suggested he put on his swim trunks and go play outside.  And it was awesome.

Walking carefully on the slippery tiles.  

I love his little shoulder blades.

Not sure what he was doing here, but this was definitely after he said "Mom, watch this!" and proceeded to lick the concrete.  All I could get out was "Jayden!  No, just - no, no, that's not - no.  No licking the concrete."  One of those "you know you're a parent when" moments - never thought I'd need to say those four words in a sentence together.

Rain Dancing!

And a couple Mommy/Daddy photos to finish it off:

Under the umbrella in the rainstorm, watching Jayden dance it up.

Asleep on Daddy's chest.
This is the outfit she came home from the hospital in.  When we brought her home from the hospital we had to roll the sleeves up.  Now the sleeves come to just below her elbows.  She's growing so fast!

ONE MONTH

I have officially been off work for one month, and have been taking care of this tiny human for one month.  I can't even believe it.  Since I'm sort of over breastfeeding right now, I'm counting down until 12 months, which is when I plan to stop.  If she (or I) can make it longer, we'll do it, but I want to at least get to 12 months, like I did with Jayden.  In any case, one month down, eleven to go!

"Official" one month photo.  Yes, I bought bows.  They were on sale at the Nordstrom Anniversary sale.  And one flower too.  They look pretty cute on her, if I do say so myself.  ;)

All of my 12s: Jayden at 3 years and 10 months, Dakota at 1 month and Jasmine at 10 years and 1 month.

Dakota had her one month doctor appointment yesterday, which is why I waited to put up the one month post.  She weighs 8 lbs, 10 ounces, which is almost a two pound weight gain since birth!  She's "packing on the pounds," as my friend's dad would say.  She's also grown an inch, so she's now about 21 inches.  Although, to be honest, if you've seen the way the pediatricians measure infants, it's not an exact science.  They do their best to stretch this wriggly baby out on the paper on the exam table, and mark around about where their head is and mark around about where their feet are and then measure between the two marks.  So yeah, they could be off by a little bit for sure.

We got the go-ahead (and actually even encouragement) to give her a bottle once a day or so.  This way she can get used to the bottle for when I go back to work.  We probably won't do it once a day, but will start trying bottles, once this week is over, to see how she does.  Fun times!

She does follow objects when they move (verrrry slowly) in front of her face.  She makes some little cooing sounds - not a ton, but a few.  And she has some facial expressions.  Not really smiles, but some almost-smiles.

I've been wanting to do this since she was born - and these aren't the two greatest pictures to use, but check this out:

If it weren't for the clothes, could you tell which baby is which?!?
Their faces, noses, eyes, and mouth to an extent, are all so similar!  I wish the picture of Jayden wasn't so dark.  But I'll do this again at two months, to see if they keep progressing similarly.

This week is ESPY week, which means Carmen is barely home.  It's a little rough on me.  He was in L.A. Sunday night for a meeting, was in L.A. last night to pick Von up and bring him back to our house, will be in L.A. tonight for a party, may be in L.A. tomorrow night for the ESPYs and/or parties, and then should be home Thursday, but it's still up in the air.  He does at least come home to sleep, but that means he's there about 11 pm or midnight.  And it means I get to do bedtime with a one month old and a three year old by myself.  I've tried to get baths in the last two nights and just haven't pulled it off.  So I finally convinced Jayden to shower with us this morning so I could wash his hair.  I seriously have no idea what I'm going to do when I go back to work and he travels.

Me and the kids at bedtime.  Dakota screaming in her carrier and Jayden requiring a piggy back ride.  Jayden was running down the hallway and tripped and fell on his wrist.  At first I was afraid he had seriously hurt it, but I think he really was just overly tired and landed on it funny.  But.  Because his wrist hurt, he couldn't walk.  Clearly.  So I carried 40+ pounds on my back and 9+ pounds on my front into the bathroom to brush teeth.
At least I don't really need to worry about getting back into an exercise routine yet!

The other fun thing about Sunday is that we had workers at our house from 8:00 am until 9:30 pm.  Yes, that's right, 9:30 P.M.  Thank goodness Jayden is also a championship sleeper, and he was able to fall asleep despite the pounding and banging just feet outside his door.

On a positive note, Dakota has stepped up her sleep game.  Over the last three or four nights, at least twice or three times she has slept for a solid three or four hours - which means going four to five hours between feedings.  Amazing.  She basically wakes up once or twice at night.  I try to feed her between 5 and 6:30, then again around 9:30 or 10:30, and then she sleeps until sometime between 1 and 3 am.  Usually she then sleeps until 6:30 or 7, but it all depends.  Funny enough, even though I'm getting more sleep, I actually feel worse during the day.  It's the whole thing of being so sleep deprived that the only way to recover is to sleep for 24 hours straight - which is just not possible, really ever.

Watching Gold Cup soccer before bedtime last night.  Baby girl snuggled on my chest and Jayden happy because Mama is "cheating" and letting him watch television before bedtime.  I thought I had gotten Dakota to sleep so I could put her in her crib while I put Jayden to bed, but she only lasted as long as it took me to read books.  At least we got a little bit of Mama-Jayden snuggle time.  

Today Von had a workout and a commercial shoot in Orange County, which is why he spent the night at our house last night.  I did three loads of laundry yesterday to get ready, including making Von's bed and our bed, and now I get to do another load today or tomorrow to clean up after him.  I also haven't done my own laundry in probably two weeks, so am going to get desperate.  And I need to do Jayden's laundry and Dakota's laundry in the next couple of days as well.  There are definitely reasons why I think I could fill my days pretty easily if I were a stay-at-home mom.

But.  Before I did anything responsible, I decided I needed a pedicure.  And I went super girly and even got flowers painted on my toes.  I have never done that before, and may never do it again, unless Dakota and I go together (which, by the way, sounds like SO much fun to me!), but it was a fun way to spend my morning.  And the timing managed to work out.  Since Carmen was busy with Von, I had to drop Jayden off at Juju's this morning, so on the way back I stopped and it was about perfect timing for Dakota to nurse.  So I sat in the chair getting my pedicure and nursing Dakota to sleep.  If only it were that easy all the time!

Jayden has been exercising his imagination lately.  He tells me about his "friends" who live in various places, usually "Norf Care-lie-na" ("North Carolina"), where it takes either 9 or 11 airplanes to get to.  Because of the recent soccer tournaments, we've explained to Jayden that the U-S-A is our country, so he also decided some of his "friends" live in a different country too.  His friends often tell him he has to do things that we've told him he can't do.  His friends also "see" cool things, like airplanes landing or dinosaurs on mountains, or other creative things he has come up with.  I love it and just play along, trying to get him to tell me his other awesome ideas.  His stomach also continues to tell him things - like his stomach isn't ready to go to bed, his stomach really wants him to be able to watch the soccer game so he can see the USA score a goal, his stomach needs him to run outside before we go upstairs, his stomach doesn't think he should go for a walk with Jasmine in the morning, etc.  Who knew stomachs had so many opinions.

And now it's almost time to go pick Jayden up from Juju's and to figure out what to do about dinner.  I hate to stop and pick up food because managing two kids in and out of the car is not fun.  But it's also not easy to figure out what to cook when I have to nurse the baby and play with the three year old.  Life is hard.  Last night I made tortellini with alfredo sauce and vegetables for Jayden and I ate crackers and carrots.  I have a feeling tonight may be a repeat.  Hopefully I can get to the grocery store tomorrow so that I can have some other food available for me to eat!  I'm mostly looking for prepared food or food that only requires stirring and minor cooking (as little chopping as possible!). Since my diet is still somewhat restricted, also trying to avoid beans, dairy (including cheese, which is KILLER), broccoli/cauliflower/cabbage and anything too spicy. Any ideas, let me know.  I'm pretty much over it.

Oh, and one more piece of news: Jayden is going to preschool in a couple weeks!  We found a school near us that actually takes kids starting at 12 weeks, meaning Dakota can go there too.  We haven't completely decided whether or not she'll go there or go to Dorkis' house, but we know there's an option.  He is super excited to go to school and pretty much asks me every day whether or not he's going to school.  He's definitely ready to be around a group of kids his age.  The school is a little more than a mile from our house, maybe two miles, which is great.  I'm trying to figure out how I can walk/run to drop him off or pick him up.  Me getting there or home is easy enough, it's figuring out how to get Jayden to/from there if all I have is a stroller.  The school reminds me a little of my elementary school growing up, in that the outdoor space is not a traditional playground space.  There is a muddy river for them to play in if they bring their rain boots, there are boxes and pool noodles around, there are tables with pens and paper if they want to color.  There is a slide, but it's smaller and definitely not the focal point.  Most importantly, when we went to visit, Jayden didn't want to leave and actually sat down a couple of times as if he was going to participate.  It was very cute, but also reinforced to us that it's the right place to go.  Here's the website, in case anyone wants to check it out: http://www.cvpreschool.com/.

Hope everyone is having a good summer.  I cannot believe that it's mid-July already.  Time flies!

Four weeks!

(I wrote this last night and for some reason my Blogger app wasn't working so I couldn't publish it, and had to re-type it on my computer.  Annoying, but it's funny so it was worth it)

I'm really not going to count by weeks, except for today, because I can't believe four weeks ago right now (8:32 pm) I was in a hospital bed trying not to control the "labor shakes" and begging my nurse for something - anything, even ice chips - to eat.

But THIS sweet little girl decided June 12th was her birthday, and look at her now.

Sleeping cuddled in her super fancy blanket.  So cuddly.  If only she would do this at 3 am...

Bright eyed in the Nordstrom women's lounge today (a bonus since I couldn't post last night).
They were installing carpet today, so after swim class we went to the mall to get away from the noise and mess in the house.  And it just happened to be the Nordstrom Anniversary sale pre-sale.  Total coincidence, I promise.

And in other news, Jayden cracked us up tonight.  It was my turn to put him to bed.  He "only" came out twice to go to the bathroom after I put him to bed (once successfully, the other just five minutes of sitting on the toilet).  But after maybe 25 minutes, I was downstairs and I heard his voice: "Mommy . . . Mommy - MOMmy!"  I went upstairs and asked him what he needs.  He tells me "I have a booo-gerrr."  I asked him why he was telling me, especially when I knew he had a tissue in his bed.  He said it wasn't on the inside of his nose, it was on the outside of his nose (why that makes a difference I have no idea), and then he said "it's this," and sticks his finger out and wipes it on my finger.  Yes, that's right.  He handed me his booger.  He was in bed, discovered he had a booger on the outside of his nose, wiped it with his finger, crawled out of bed, walked into the hallway, called me upstairs - all so he could wipe a booger on me.  Being a parent is AWESOME.

And in the middle of writing this, I was called upstairs again to get an update on the progress of his owie.  In case you were wondering, it is currently feeling better.

And also in case you were wondering: if he comes out of his room again tonight for anything except for a bathroom run, we may skip swim class tomorrow so hopefully no more updates.

[that was the last venture outside his room until this morning, thank goodness - so we did make it to swim class this morning!]

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.