My View of Heaven

I'm in love with Grace. I forgot how deeply you fall in love with your baby at first. And I think it's easier and more automatic this time around. When Lily was born, we were new parents and everything was a big unknown. Everything was new, everything was different, and we had to figure everything out for the first time. With Lily we were used to at least 8 solid hours of sleep. With Grace we've had over two years of moderate to severe sleep deprivation, so waking a couple of times a night ain't no thang. Before Lily came we were used to being footloose and fancy free, so it was an adjustment to have to plan every outing and event around the (real or imagined) needs of a baby. With Grace, we've been through the gauntlet and know that it takes at least an hour of planning to leave the house and we've got our system down. And we already know that as we walk out the door, someone will need to either relieve themselves or eat something. We're used to it. So this time around, without the distraction of having to drastically change literally every single aspect of my life, I am free to sit back and fall head over heels in love with my baby*. And I have. I love everything about her. I love her sleepy milky grins. I love how her little neck stretches when she's on my shoulder burping. I love how voraciously she eats when she's super hungry. I love how lazily she eats when she's had her fill but still wants to cuddle. I love how no matter how upset and hungry she is, she calms down when I pick her up. I love how soft and squishy she is all over. I love her curly dark hair. I love her funny faces, especially when she looks at me suspiciously. I love her big round belly (Lily was a skinny baby so this is new to me... and so adorable!). I love her little goat noises. I love when she laughs in her sleep.

So here are a few pictures of my sweet baby girl and my adorable big girl who I love so much.

Lily taking a break from playing to talk to Baby Grace. She'll bring things over to Grace and say, "Look Baby Grace, a cotton ball!" or "Don't pick your nose, Baby Grace" if Grace's hand happens to brush her nose.
One of Grace's suspicious looks.
Grace all sweaty after nursing. Love those chubby cheeks!

Lily loving on BG during tummy time.
What sweet sisters!
Lily really is a fantastic big sister and always wants to include Grace in everything.
Grace was getting hungry and thought Lily's bow looked good to eat.
Kissing her sweet sister.
A great Grace face.
Creepy! Lily wanted me to feed Baby Sadie while I was feeding Baby Grace.
Lily shared her toy salt and pepper shakers with Grace.




*That's not to say that I didn't fall head over heels in love with Lily. I sure did! In fact, there's a very special head over heels in love that is reserved for your first child. But it was a different process. This process is more relaxing. :)

Well, it's really not hard to tell who's who. There's the hair and the size for starters. But I jut wanted to post a few comparative pictures of Lily and Grace to see if the sisters look like sisters. They do look like sisters, but definitely not twins. :)

My parents came to visit this last weekend... and that's my excuse for not blogging since last Thursday. :)

It was fun to have my parents in town for the weekend. Lily loved having all the extra attention and Grace loved having grandparents to snuggle with. I realized after they left that I thought I took a lot more pictures than I actually did. I think I took some with Mom's camera and figured I would get copies, but forgot. But we had a really fun time soaking up the rays by the pool in the back yard and going to the downtown park for a walk.

My dad mentioned at some point that he could tell I was a lot more busy with two kids than I had been with one because I was blogging less. How true! And I've even thought of a few blogs I would like to write, but just never get a chance to sit down at the computer and write them. As a matter of fact, I often don't even turn my computer on all day and just check my email from my iPhone while I'm nursing. So for a while all you're probably going to get are more mundane updates and pictures. But I'll be saving everything up and you can expect something profound here in a couple of months... ok well at least something as profound as I get, which is to say not profound at all. But more than just life updates and pictures. :)

Jim found a tube in the garage and Lily enjoyed floating.


The first day the pool water was fresh and COLD so Lily had to cuddle with Gramby to warm up.
And then they played with the crazy flower together.
Then Lily enjoyed watering Geezer's feet.
Recently, Lily learned how to play 'wheelbarrow' and was showing off for Gramby.
Fun with Geezer and water guns.

At the park Gramby and Lily were swinging fools.
Grace and Geezer hung out until Grace got hungry.


This is a video I took before my parents came. We got home from an outing and Grace was hungry and Lily was crabby and throwing a fit, and amid all the screaming and crying I thought, "This is just too funny, I need to record it." So I got out my camera to record the crying in stereo. This is probably birth control to those without kids and just hilarious to those of us with kids (because face it, we've all been there!).


Lily floating along.



All the dogs got to take a dip in the pool. Hazel was far and away the least graceful so she is the one who got recorded.

I'm chalking it up to pregnancy (postpartum now I suppose) brain but I totally forgot to wish Jim a happy birthday yesterday! Oh, I remembered in real life and everything, but I forgot to announce to the blogging world that Jim is another year older.

So I'm doing it a day late:

Happy Birthday Jim Klein! I love you!

For Jim's birthday he got a couple of little gifts, but the fun one was that I gave him a framed picture of "his girls" to put on his desk at work. On Monday my friend, Katrina, came over and went to the park and did a little photo shoot. Getting Lily to smile for the camera was almost impossible, but we got several good shots. I think with Lily it's just a matter of hitting her in the right mood.

I will leave you with a few of the more entertaining shots. :)

This is the most normal one you're going to get. When we asked Lily to smile, this was the face she made; sort of a piggy nose-scrunch face.
Or we got the squints (and I'll admit that it was rather bright out that day).
This was the other very common version of Lily's "smile" the "I'm going to eat you" smile.
I was bribing Lily with candy to behave, thus the purple tongue.
None of the pictures with Lily holding Grace worked out, this one least of all. This was our very last attempt at a sisters shot and you can see why. I think Lily was attempting to kiss Grace, but it looks like she's trying to goo her face.
Let me go, crazy lady! (OR Let me go crazy, lady! Punctuation really is key, isn't it?)
I tried to get Lily calmed down (she was done by this point) and I kind of overdid the calming. She wouldn't smile after this.
...and then both of the girls lost it. This was our last shot at the park. :)


And one last little story. All day yesterday I worked with Lily on telling her daddy "Happy Birthday." I would tell her that when Daddy got home, she needed to tell him "Happy Birthday, Daddy." But when I'd ask Lily what she was going to say to Daddy, she'd say, "I dunno..." I didn't think it was going to happen. Well, I was nursing Grace when Jim was driving home from work. Lily decided that she had to go potty right then, so I told her to go upstairs and go by herself. Well, then I heard her yell downstairs that she went poopy, so I told her good job, but you have to wipe now, to which she responded "I not know how." So in the midst of coaching her on how to wipe your bottom, Jim got home and I asked him to please go upstairs and help Lily. So when Jim walked up the stairs, he was greeted by a half-naked toddler with a giant wad of toilet paper running down the hall, yelling, "Happy Birthday Daddy! I love you Daddy!"

I finally got it on tape! Grace has now rolled over a total of 6 times and I got the sixth time on video! The first time she rolled over was when she was six days old, and now at eighteen days old she's rolled over an average of once every three days. I have no idea what this means. Does she have super developed muscles? Is she extra determined to be mobile? Does she hate tummy time? Does she just have a big round belly that is impossible to lay on? I have no clue. I've had a couple of my friends say that their kids rolled over a few times when they were teeny tiny so at least I'm not the only one out there baffled by my little one! Anyway, enjoy the video!

The other day we were downstairs and Jim had eaten a piece of candy and the wrapper was sitting there. Lily came over and was asking me what the rapper was for, and when I told her it was from a piece of candy, she told me that she wanted a piece of candy. Well, I fully intended to give her a piece of candy (kids need candy every now and again) but to be funny, I told her to go bat her eyes at her dad and ask for candy. Then I had to explain to her that "batting" her eyes was like blinking really fast. So she went over and blinked at her daddy and asked for candy. It was cute. Well after she'd finished her piece of candy, she came over to us again, in full-on blink mode, saying, "I blink my's eyes, I get candy!?" We about died laughing. So then we tried to video tape it and at least got some good solid blinks on tape.



On Saturday we went downtown and had lunch at Bella Rose and then went for a walk around the park. In case you were wondering, Bella Rose has a fantastic tuna melt sandwich. Yum yum! They were having some kind of child safety fair in the park so we went to a couple of booths, which was fun for Lily. It was nice to be outdoors in such nice weather, but even after a short walk around the park, my body was pooped out.


Jim and Lily at the restaurant.
Grace slept all through lunch and then nursed while we had a scoop of ice cream.

There was a big fire truck they were letting the kids sit in for a minute and they gave the kids a little fireman hat too.
Here is Jim prepping Lily for her big "ride". Also, that's our new tandem stroller. Awesome, huh?
She's a fire girl!!
A better shot of our stroller. Grace is in her car seat with my nursing cover draped over her to keep out the sun.

On our way home from our walk, Lily was pretty sleepy and was breaking into song. She often goes off in her own little world and sings, and it's super cute. You can even make out what she's saying from time to time. At first she's singing "they got it" which I think means that her toes got the pinwheel. Then later you can hear her sing "play with toys."



Last but not least, a few shots of the adorable Baby Grace!

I'm convinced that we have the sweetest two year old who is also the best big sister in the world. She already loves and dotes on Grace. I'm sure she gets a little jealous when people come by and coo over her little sister, but she is also very proud of her sister and loves taking on the role of "great big sister." Today in the car the conversation was evidence of what a sweet, caring girl she is.

Lily: "Baby Grace want to hear song?" (Lily then pulls the toy above Grace's car seat that plays music) "Baby Grace like song."

Me: "Yes, Grace likes the song."

Lily: "I want to hold Baby Grace's hand. Mommy, I want to hold Baby Grace's hand!"

Me: "Ok, you can hold her hand."

Lily holds her hand

Lily: "Baby Grace have pretty lips... like me!"

Me: "Yes, you both have very pretty lips."

Lily: "Baby Grace cute."

Grace makes a cooing sound and then fusses a little.

Lily: "Baby Grace say 'ga'. Why Baby Grace say 'ga'? Baby Grace crying. Baby Grace ok?"

Me: "Yes she's ok, sweetie."

Lily: "It's ok Baby Grace!"

Lily: (still holding Grace's hand) "Baby Grace not let go."

Me: "Do you want her to let go?"

Lily: "Yes."

Me: "Then just take your hand away gently."

She does.

Lily: "Baby Grace want to read a book? I give Baby Grace book?"

Me: "You can read a book to Baby Grace, but you can't give her books. Baby Grace can't have books yet, she's too little."

Lily: "Ok." Then she proceeds to "read" one of her books to Grace.

She also wants to share all of her toys with BG and we've had to tell her that babies can't have everything that big girls can have and that if she wants to give BG anything she has to ask mom and dad first. So far she's done well!

Today she wanted to give Grace her singing Carebear. I told her it was ok, and she set it by Grace on her swing. It was adorable.





In other news, we went to the doctor yesterday for Grace's second PKU and a checkup and she checked out healthy! She is now 7lb 12oz, which is up 11oz from her birth weight and 22oz from what she weighed last week (since most babies lose a little weight after birth). So all this nursing is apparently working out for her! She also had a goopy eye all week. I was worried that it was the first sign of pink eye, but it never turned pink, it just kept gooping over. The doc said it was probably a blocked tear duct and that we should put a warm compress on it a few times a day and it would clear up. I try to wipe it out regularly, but when she sleeps for a while it crusts over and when I clean it out I can't help but think of the time I tried to help Small Fry shed and pulled her eye off. I hope I don't pull Grace's eye off. She is also transitioning into size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes. It took Lily a couple of months to reach those milestones! Grace seems like a giant! :) But we're all happy that she's growing and doing well and is such a sweet and happy girl.

Each summer my Grandparents embark on a whirlwind tour of the northwest. They live in Phoenix, but lived for a lot of years in Montana and are originally from California, so they have a lot of connections in this part of the world. So they drive up from Phoenix and visit my aunt and uncle in Moscow, visit us here in CdA, visit various friends in Montana as well as my parents in Billings, and then head down and visit all sorts of friends and relations throughout California on their way home. It's quite the trip! I know that Grandma Sue was nervous that Grace wouldn't be born when they made their trip, but luckily Grace decided to make her entrance a little early and Grandma Sue and Papa got to visit their second great granddaughter. They only stayed for an afternoon (since they didn't want to "intrude" which was thoughtful of them, but we would have been glad to have them), but we had a nice little visit. I wish they would have stayed longer because Lily was in a bit of a "mood" and was just starting to warm up to them when they needed to head out. Oh well, I guess that's how two year olds are sometimes.

Here we all are: Great Grandma Sue, Grace, me, Lily, and Papa.
Grace like being held by her G-gma.
Lily warmed up to Papa when she figured out she could "ride" his knee like a horse.
Little Grace all cozy on G-gma's lap.
They brought Lily a doll and a lizard to play with. She loves them both and has enjoyed making the lizard "crawl" on any metal surface. (It's a magnet)
My secret sister at church gave Lily some bubble solution and a big bubble wand which she's loved playing with. I put a bunch of the bubble solution in a pie pan, which was just the right size for the bubble wand. And in the process I also found a great way to get all the rust off your pie pans! Just soak them in bubble solution all day!

Lily finally got brave enough to play with the crazy flower.
Update:
Yesterday was Jim's first day back at work after Grace was born and being home "alone" went really well! I was extremely grateful that Jim got to take all the time off, but it's nice to start to transition into what will be our "normal" routine, and it's good to know that I can do it! I didn't expect everything to go so smoothly, partially because I was expecting Grace to be like Lily, but she is a completely different baby. At the time I thought Lily was an easy baby, but looking back I realize that she was very particular and she cried a lot. We thought that was normal baby stuff since everyone always talks about being up all night with newborns. But now that I have a really easy baby, I know that Lily was a little more difficult than I realized. I'm so glad I had my more difficult one first, though. If I'd had Grace first and then expected #2 to be the same way, and then had Lily I would have been in for a big shock! Grace lets me get two or three hours of sleep in a row at night and since she nurses in bed, I'm never really that awake and I only have to get up and turn on the lights once or twice during the night when I change her diaper. I've even been well-rested enough to get up with Jim at 5:30 and eat breakfast with him like usual!

Grace also rolled over again but I didn't quite get it on tape. I'll keep trying :)