One Month

You know how some people eat a lot of sweets before going on a diet or smoke a lot of cigarettes before quitting? Maybe Lucy senses that the time will come when she will be asked to give up her pacifier because now she wants two pacifiers at all times. One just simply isn't enough. Oh well - it's not a battle I'm willing to fight at this moment. She can have 15 as long as she doesn't hit her sister.
Sofie turned one month old on Friday. My camera wasn't working, so I couldn't blog then, but I figured out the problem and was able to take some pictures today. She went to the doctor and she is exactly 1 kilo (2.2lbs) heavier than when she was born. Good work, Sof! I think she is starting to smile, but I haven't got a deliberate grin quite yet, so I am not going to declare that she is an official smiler yet. She is a super sweet baby. She is still sleeping quite a bit, except for a lovely fussy time that she has developed from 8 to 10 every night.


Pete is on a trip to China this week with the 8th grade class. We can't wait for him to get home on Thursday. Life is much more fun when he is here.

Two Months From Today ...

WE'LL BE ON THE PLANE BACK TO PORTLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I seriously can't wait! I've been excited to move home for a while, but now that Sofie is here, I'm not working anymore, and I spend my days in the apartment, I am itching to get out of here and be home with friends and family. On that note, however, if anyone knows of any jobs out there for us, send them our way. Although we both plan on staying in education, we are willing to think outside of the box as well - we just need to be employed!

After a wonderful Spring Break, Pete is back at work and we miss him so much. I cannot begin to tell you what a wonderful dad Pete is. He is amazing. He and Lucy have become even stronger buddies now that Sofie is here. He is such a good partner, always positive, and helps me make it through the times where I'm finding things hard. I feel so lucky to have him by my side.

Sofie contemplating her new surroundings.

Such a sweet, sweet girl.

We went to the park yesterday with Lucy. She just loves running around and is getting so good at going down the big slides all by herself.

61 more gets ups until the plane (not that I'm counting). :)

Stitches and Stats

Another exciting day for the Pete and Tracy Muilenburg Family! Last night as we were getting Lucy ready for a bath, Sofie was fussy and I was trying to get her calmed down so I could help with Lucy's bath. Lucy was following me around as I put Sofie in the swing. Well, our stupidly small apartment not proved to not only be annoying, but dangerous! Lucy tripped over Sofie's swing and hit the open door, splitting her eyebrow open. Thank goodness Pete remained a little more calm than I did at the sight of blood gushing out of our sweet baby girl. Anyway, Pete ended up taking her to the ER and she is now the proud owner of seven stitches. Poor thing. She was very brave - the whole event must have been very traumatic for an 18-month-old, but today she has been happy as a clam, like nothing happened. Sweet girl.
Now on to stats on Sofie ... we took her back to the doctor on Thursday to check on her jaundice levels (which are going down and will hopefully be normal soon.) Anyway, she is already up to 9 lbs, 6 oz! Way to go Sofie! So far she is a good little baby. She still has her days and nights mixed up a bit, but more than anything she just likes to sleep. Does that mean Pete and I are getting a lot of sleep, no - not so much, but we love our little family nonetheless.

Life with two is definitely challenging, but our girls are so sweet it is worth it.

Life with Kids

Lucy loves laying her head on the dehumidifier in our apartment. It blows her hair all around and she thinks it is super funny.
So here's a story for you ...
Pete and I have been trying to go on little outings while he has been home for Spring Break to get out of the apartment and avoid the insanity that comes from living in 600 square feet with two kids. On Wednesday, we decided to go to Stanley, do some shopping, and eat dinner. For the dinner portion we chose to go to a German restaurant called King Ludwig's.
We got there early, around 5, and it seemed that this was the time to go with kids because everyone in the restaurant seemed to have a baby. Anyway, after we ordered, it was time to feed Sofie, so I spent the first half hour of our meal in a tiny bathroom stall. Nice. When I got out, I came back to the table and Pete and Lucy were almost done with their meal. I sat down, got about two bites in, and Lucy asked me for a bite of my dinner, which I gave to her. I immediately regretted this decision ...
As soon as the bite was in her mouth she made a face I know well - the puke face. I don't think she was choking, but I think she has a gag reflex like no other. At any rate, she puke everywhere. I hopped up out of my chair and said "Oh gosh!" as I started the clean up process. Lucy puked again and then said, "Oh gosh ... it's oh gosh!" over and over again. But was instantly back to her normal happy self, albeit covered in vomit.
The only extra clothing we had for her was her "I love Santa" pajamas. Nice. As I was cleaning up, Pete was holding Sofie and she started howling. He stood up to bounce her around. I am sure we looked like quite the family. Pete said to me, "Welcome to our life with kids, honey." Haha. Oh well. And so it goes.

We are all still sick around here, but hopefully the recovery will begin soon. Pete got it last, so he feels the worst right now.

This is a picture for Carolyn who sent Sofie this cute "Barack-a-Bye-Baby" t-shirt. Lucy says "Obama" all the time now - however, she thinks everyone on television is Obama. We tried to teach her who the real Obama is with this t-shirt.

And, just to be fair, here is a pic of Lucy eating diner last night. Even with a cold, she keeps us smiling. Although, I'm not sure how much I was smiling when she woke up at 5am today, when Sofie was actually asleep. Grrr. She's still cute though.

Just some pictures from the day. We all have colds around here, including Sofie. I hate to see a two-week old sound stuffy, but hopefully she will be better soon.

Pete's mostly been on Lucy duty, but he got some one-on-one time with Shmoo #2 this morning.

Sofie with her eyes open during the day - amazing!

Lucy being sweet with her little sister. We clipped her hair up like a big girl. Cute.

18 Months

Lucy turned 18 months old yesterday! Wow! To celebrate, Pete and I took her to Ocean Park to look at the pandas, sea lions, and tons of fish. You'd think I'd have a lot of great pictures from the day, but, alas, I forgot to put the memory card in the camera before we left - ugh! I guess "baby brain" lingers even after delivery. Anyway, here are a few pictures from today of our cute girl.

Lucy is a little talker at 18 months. She know a ton of words and is starting to combine them. In the past couple of days she has started to say "It's a" quite a bit, which can be quite funny: "It's a wow!" "It's a boom!" She also uses it correctly - "It's a ball." The funniest way she has used it is "It's a crying!" in reference to Sofie. Yes, it's a crying sometimes.

Passport

Here's a cute little picture of Sofie sleeping in her swing. If she ever sleeps at night as well as she does during the day I will be one happy mama. I guess in a way it is nice that she sleeps a lot during the day, as I am able to spend some one-on-one time with Lucy. I don't always feel this way at 3:30am, however.
Pete and I took a mini date today with Sofie to get her passport picture taken. We have an appointment on Tuesday next week at the U.S. Embassy to get all of that taken care of. Getting a picture taken of a two-week old baby that meets all of the Embassy requirements, however, is a bit difficult. Here's how it turned out ... Her ears aren't really deformed - those are my fingers holding up her head. Hopefully they'll still accept the picture.

Just to take a walk down memory lane ... here's Lucy's passport picture at three weeks old. I think they kind of look alike here.

Spring Break

Spring Break is here! Although my parents left Sunday and I was very, very sad to see them go, I am so glad and grateful that we get to have Pete home for two weeks. He is such a great Daddy and I love having him around, as well. I am slowly but surely getting better (knock on wood). I have very little pain and haven't had any leakage in about 24 hours, so that is good news. Pete still has to play doctor three times a day and change my dressings, but hopefully that will end soon.
Lucy is still adjusting to having the baby around. She loves to look at her and talk about her, but, occasionally, it all gets too much and she decides it's a good time to smack her a good one and let her know who is boss. Yesterday this led to Lucy's first ever "Time Out" - it's all a transition. I suppose I should get used to this love/hate relationship - don't we all have that kind of relationship with our siblings while we are growing up under the same roof? I do have to give her credit that so far there has been far more love than hate.

This is during one of the "love" times. It was way too cute ... Lucy pulled out one of her favorite books "Big Little" and "read" it so Sofie. "Head, big ... Toes, 'ittle,'" she said as she pointed to the pictures. She didn't care that Sofie was fast asleep - she thought is was a good time to read. It was super, super cute.

On their last night here we took my Mom and Dad to a Greek restaurant in Ap Lei Chau to thank them for everything they had done over the past two weeks. It was a really small token of our appreciation - the fanciest restaurant in town still wouldn't have been enough.

A quick shot of the Dragon Boats practicing in Aberdeen Harbor.

I haven't posted the best pictures of myself lately, but I despite my appearance, I will post this one. Yesterday morning after a night of very little sleep, Pete took this picture after I said, "I am exhausted, but so happy right now." Overall I could use a little sleep - Sofie still has her days and nights mixed up - but I love our little family.

It's Always Something, as Marge says

My road to recovery has been a bit bumpy with this c-section. On Wednesday night I started having some problems (I will not go into detail - trust me, it was gross) and had to go up to the hospital. Luckily they let me come back home for the night and just visit every few days to see how things are going. With Lucy, the c-section itself was traumatic, but the recovery was great - so easy. This one has been kind of the opposite. It is frustrating to have to be dealing with this when having a healthy body would be a big plus when taking care of a newborn and an 18-month-old. I am so, so, so grateful my parents are here. They leave on Sunday and I do not know what we are going to do without them. Their two weeks here have flown by, although I am sure they are ready to get on to a more pleasant part of their vacation exploring China. I am so glad that it is now Spring Break and Pete can be home for two weeks.

Here is Lucy reading up on Baby's First Year - she wants to know what to expect and how long she has to wait until she has a playmate that is a bit more sociable.

Sofie gets her first real bath - obviously she loved it :).

Here's a picture of our new little family - makes me smile.