3 Months

And 10 days. I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I blogged. Life has been busy! So what's happened, let's see:

Etta turned 3 months old on the 20th, and took her first road trip, to see her grandparents and Aunts and Uncles in Houston.

The girls with their Auntie Caroline in her beautiful new house:

With their Pappy on Father's Day:
With Daddy on his first Father's Day as a Father of two:
Etta also started napping in her own room, first in the travel crib, then in her own crib, and now, as of a week ago, she is sleeping in her own room in her crib, at night. I think we all sleep much better with that arrangement. She's started wearing sleepers, and I think she's gearing up to roll from her back to her tummy any day now. I find her either on her side, or trying to roll that way almost every time I walk in her room.

Stella started ballet class today. She looks so cute in her little leotard, tights and ballet shoes. Unfortunately we all got soaking wet on our way to her first class, as it was raining cats and dogs this morning, but she seemed to really enjoy herself. I think her favorite part was watching the big Ballerinas and male Ballet dancers (is there a word for that?) before class.

Tim and I threw a joint birthday party with TWELVE children and a mess of adults. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of CRAZY too!


This is also the corner where we will be building a playscape for the kiddos this weekend. It was Stella's birthday present from her Aunt Caroline, Uncle Daniel, Aunt Christine and Uncle Brian, but we've been a wee bit busy and haven't tackled it yet. I'm really excited, Tim has grand plans!

Well, my car's done at the mechanics, so I guess that's all the updates for now!

I Feel Transformed!

On the absolutely beautiful, really cool quilt Ashley made us
Etta went 7 hours and 15 minutes between feedings last night! Hallelujah! I hope this is the start of a larger trend. For the last week or so she'd been regressing to only 3 or 4 hours between feedings at night and it had been wearing me down!

I took her to book club last night and my friend who has a baby a week older than Etta also brought her daughter. I couldn't believe how much bigger and advanced her baby seemed than Etta! We were talking about how you can't help comparing your children, which of course I do, but I usually think my children are vastly superior;) I think because Margeaux (the other baby) had so much hair and was so much bigger, she seemed even older than she was. Everyone said Etta was so tiny, but to me she looks so big because I focus on how she's growing so much every day! Etta was perfectly behaved and really enjoyed her first girl's night out. I faced her out towards everybody and everyone told me she would turn to look at whoever was talking. Looks like I might have another outgoing little girl on my hands!

Yesterday afternoon, Stella and I lounged in the grass under the oak tree and cuddled and were silly. It was SO much fun! I have to remember to take those moments and just enjoy being a parent. There was a really nice breeze and it really was hard to believe that it was summer. That's definitely the part of our yard I think we'll be spending the most time in as it gets hotter and hotter. We'll probably even set up the outside stuff for our birthday party Saturday there because we're starting when it will still be hot outside. I'm thinking a bunch of blankets set out for a picnic while the kiddos run wild. I also took no pictures yesterday afternoon because I was just enjoying my time out there. That's rare for me.

Speaking of pictures, I think I realized a reason why people have so many pictures of their first child and far less of their subsequent children: when you have only one, you spend a large portion of your day just sitting around staring at them. So taking pictures gives you something to do. And it's creative and fun. Also, you feel like you don't want to miss documenting one second of their development. I'm busy with Stella too now, of course, but I also spend a lot more time just enjoying Etta and what she's doing, rather than grabbing the camera to record every moment. I get regular pictures of her, but there's no reason to take a whole "roll" every day! Actually I just tried to find a picture of Stella for this post and realized I've only taken one of her since May 25th. Now I feel a little guilty. Guess I'd better step up the picture taking of her at least!

Stella shocked me yesterday. We were laying out in the backyard and I was telling her about the Wildlife Park outside San Antonio and how we should go, that her Daddy and I had gone, etc. And she said, "Was I in your tummy then?" and I said no. Luckily she did not ask her usual question which is, "where was I then?" which is always difficult to answer. She's not ready for the details yet and we don't believe in some giant Cherub factory in the sky, so it's hard to say anything. But what she asked yesterday made that question seem easy-peasy. She asked, "How did I get in your tummy?" WOAH! I was not prepared for that. I said, "um, give Mommy a second." And then I said, "when a Mommy and Daddy love each other very much, they decide to have a baby." She wasn't falling for it, she said, "but how did I get IN your tummy?" Uh, Uh, stalling, stalling. "Daddy put you in there." And then she asks, "How?" Crikes, kid you're only 3! So I remember what I was supposed to say in the first place (at least according to the books) "how do you think he put you in there?" And she pointed to her belly button. PHEW! Then she pointed to my bellybutton and tickled me and the topic was changed. I neither confirmed nor denied that she was inserted via belly button. But I think I'd better read up on how I'm supposed to answer these questions and fast. Kids today grow up too quickly!

More cute Stellaisms: We were driving down South 1st Sunday in search of snowcones and there was a guy at S. 1st and Barton Springs just standing there wearing a G-string! He was pushing his bike (of course you wouldn't want to ride it because then you couldn't see the goods, duh!) We were flabbergasted and much amused. Even in Austin, we're used to only seeing Leslie wearing that little clothing. At least outside of Hippie Hollow. It looked like this guy was in shape enough to wear what he was wearing (we did only see his backside) and I guess he was just creatively trying to beat the heat. He also obviously enjoyed all the attention and was waving to passerby. We'd been sitting there for a few minutes, Tim and I talking at length about him, when Stella said, "He's probably wearing sunscreen." OMG, it cracked me up! Glad my repeated messages about sun protection are sinking in!

Happy Birthday to Me!

At 8pm tonight I will have been on this earth 32 years. Hard to believe. I have to say, a lot of wonderful things have happened since my last birthday, but the definite highlight was having Etta, who is gurgling and playing on the floor next to me. Etta is the reason my birthday began at 6:15am, but I'll let her off the hook this time:)

Wow, poor baby has the hiccups and is farting at the same time. I have a feeling she won't be happily gurgling for much longer!

I have nothing profound to add, I'm too sleepy these days, but I just wanted to mark the occasion!

Hook 'Em!

Stella did Hook 'Em for the first time Monday morning. She also insisted that Etta where her Longhorn Cheerleader outfit that day. Here's some pics and the video of Stella doing Hook 'Em and Etta looking like she's cheering!

Etta at Two Months

Etta had her two month checkup today. She is 23 inches long (75th percentile), 10 lbs, 3.2 oz (almost 50th percentile) and her head is 39 cm (50-75th percentile). She rolled from her tummy to her back and really impressed the doctor. She also impressed the doctor with how well she can hold up her head and by trying to crawl right off the exam table!

Apparently she's taking after her sister, because I read back on what I'd written when Stella had her 2 month check-up and apparently the doctor used the word "awesome" to describe how well Stella held up her head and said that Stella "held her head up like a 4 month old". For comparison, Stella was also 23 inches long at her 2 month checkup, but weighed 11 lbs, 9.6 oz and had a head circumference of 38.5 inches. Here's Stella at two months:
Man, it is obvious they are sisters, but there are also obvious differences. For one, Stella had a lot more hair and I think Stella's face was a little rounder, where Etta's is a little more oval.

Stella had her 3 year checkup today and everything is right on track. She was 40" tall (97th percentile) and they said 41 pounds (97th percentile), but at home she's been weighing consistently 38.5 pounds. She was wearing her Lucky jeans today and I think they weigh a couple of pounds all by themselves!

China Cabinet and Uchi recap

I got the stuff in the china cabinet. I'd still like to rearrange the stuff on the shelves a bit, but I love how it looks overall. I'm so happy with it!

We had a fabulous time at Uchi last night, the food was A-mazing, but we spent a bit more than we intended to. We ordered the Chef's special, which is "market rate" and it was a higher market rate than I bargained for! Oh well, how often do you have your 10th anniversary?

I neglected to take any pictures, of course, but we were wearing pretty much the same thing as when we went to Damon and Shanna's wedding Saturday, but dressed down a bit. So you can imagine we looked a bit like this:And now we're on day two of our eleventh year. Time sure flies when you're having fun!

10 Years!

Today marks 10 years since I married the most amazing man on earth. My best friend and the father of my children. In honor of this occasion, I actually scanned in a few of our wedding photos. Please forgive the poor quality, I must not have set it to the correct resolution. But our scanner is in a cabinet in a corner of our bedroom right under Tim's desk, so I don't want to bug him again to re-do it.We're so young and so shiny, (I wish someone had told me to re-powder my face). Tim had just turned 22 and I was two weeks shy of my 22nd birthday. I'd known that I wanted to marry him since the first week we knew each other, and so we were ecstatic that the day was finally here.

I've known our 10th anniversary was coming for sometime, of course, and I had planned to write a long post about it, but, of course, life got in the way. To celebrate, we're going to Uchi tonight (my mom was awesome enough to come to town to watch the girls since the other grandparents are on their own vacation), and I'm going to drink too much Saki. You know this is a special occasion when I'm willing to actually use some precious milk, aka liquid gold, for it. Yay for the pump n' dump;)

New China Cabinet

No time to blog lately, but I wanted to share the new china cabinet we got off Craig's List yesterday. It's Drexel Declaration, manufactured in June of 1958, solid Walnut and the price was right. It's a little more traditional than our usual style, but it has nice clean lines and if we ever find the perfect china cabinet, we can easily resell it. I LOVE the lines in the wood. Now I just need to put all the stuff that is currently sitting on our dining table in it!

Stella in her Spring Program

I took a rather long video of Stella's Spring Program Tuesday. They sang the song she sings at least a snippet of almost every day: Dinosaurs Marching. It's really funny because here, Stella does all the motions, but she doesn't sing any of it until the end. It looks to me like she's looking around trying to find me, and at the very end (probably around the 1:20 mark), she sees me and smiles and it's so cute it just makes me melt! Stella can be so independent you think she's like "Mommy who?", so moments like this make a Mommy all warm and fuzzy.


Tim couldn't make it, so I'm SOOO glad I asked a grandmother I was sitting next to to keep an eye on Etta while I made my way to the front to get this video. If I'd stayed in the back where I was because of the giant stroller, I would barely have been able to see her and I certainly couldn't have gotten any pictures. (I did ask someone to watch Etta, though, instead of just walking off and abandoning my baby in her stroller like the two women in front of me. Seriously, I have no idea where those mamas went! And some man was looking in their strollers. Kind of creepy!)

We finally did Tummy Time and play time with Etta last night. And boy is she a pro at it. Etta played the little foot chimes immediately and for a long time. Stella loves it too. Just check out this adorable photo of them together.Stella also kept Etta entertained by talking to her and showing her her Barbies while I got ready. So cute!

Bye Bye Pacifier!

Stella has only had 2 pacifiers left for some time now. Then it became one, and the one she had left had a tear in it, so it was definitely a deficient pacifier. So we'd decided, and she had agreed, to have this coming Thursday night be her last night with a pacifier. We'd already been talking about the Binky Fairy and a Binky prize. Then today I noticed that her one remaining pacifier had a big gaping hole in it and various rips. Not very safe, she'd probably already swallowed some plastic. So I decided I'd talk to Tim and we could decide to either get her another binky, or end Binky time early. Unfortunately, I forgot that she needed her binky for naptime AND bedtime, so at about 20 minutes before her nap, Tim and I decided she was giving her binky up a little ahead of schedule. And effective immediately. Since it was raining, we couldn't hang the binky in a bag in a tree for the Binky Fairy, so she and I went out on the front porch and hung it in a bag on one of the branches we have in a pot out there.

We talked about how the Binky Fairy would give her a small prize, and then we would take her to the Build a Bear Workshop and she could make a stuffed animal and name him Binky. She was very excited. And, shockingly, she went to sleep without any trouble. I thought I'd have to make a super-quick trip to the toy store during her nap, but it was raining cats and dogs outside, so I found a bag of prizes that I'd used when she was potty training and found that I'd added some of our stocking stuffers to it. So the Binky Fairy brought a slinky, bubbles, and a toy airplane. Luckily, because she's only 3, Stella found this bounty to be the coolest thing ever and kept talking about how the Binky Fairy had brought her this awesome stuff. Then she couldn't stop talking about going to the Build a Bear Workshop and building a bear and naming him Binky. I tried to tell her we could go another day, since it was still pouring outside, but kids don't understand waiting. So as soon as Tim got off work (luckily it had stopped raining by then), we headed to the mall to make her new friend.
Giving Binky a bath and brushing his hair. She did this for a long time.
She thought it was most amazing place she'd ever seen and selected a monkey, who she then put in a firefighter suit. Originally the monkey was a boy, but as we were leaving the mall, she declared him a girl firefighter, and of course we told her girls can be firefighters too. So she's sleeping with Binky the Girl Firefighter, her new best friend. She thinks her doll is way cooler than pacifiers. YES! Dressing Binky in her Firefighter suit.

Eating Dinner together.

Now is the time of night when I go crash on the couch. Today was rough, but tomorrow will be rougher: it's the first day I have to do the whole drop Tim off at work/ take Stella to school/ pick Tim up from work thing with two. And tomorrow has the added bonus that we have to take Tim to work early because Stella is having her Spring Program at school, which I'm staying for but Tim can't because he has a meeting at work. We're trying to get out of the house by 7:30am. God help us all!

House Numerology

I just did the House Numerology for my house. Because I'm silly like that. And this was what I came up with:

House Number 1
The positive energy vibration of this house is that a House number 1 creates good energy and has many positive vibrations. This house caries with it an inventive energy that needs someone who likes to set trends. Lots of sunlight is a must for this positive vibration to occur. If you are lacking in natural sunlight, then I would suggest getting some natural lighting light bulbs.
This house can evoke selfishness and snobbery. It is also suggested that you keep an eye on the candles in this house for One houses are prone to fires. Make sure you fire alarm batteries are always up to date, even better, get the wired fire alarms.

Positive Colour Suggestions: Yellow, Gold, and Orange.

"Prone to Fires"? That's pretty scary! Of course, I don't really believe in any of this, except for fun, but it still freaks you out a little!

Get your house's numerology here.

Rain, Rain Go Away...

So it's been raining yesterday and today. The days I'd planned to get out in the weather and have some fun with the family, especially since Etta hit the all-important mark of 4 weeks yesterday. But then it started storming. We need the rain, so I'm trying to not be too bummed about it, but it really would be nice to be out enjoying Spring rather than cooped up inside. That way Stella and Etta could be riding in the new stroller that came this morning, rather than Stella pushing it around the house with her dolls in it and pretending like she's going to the park.

Luckily, Stella still has fun, even in the rain:
I was looking at a website for suggestions for things to do on a rainy day, and there was a picture of a little girl spinning with an umbrella. Stella decided she wanted to do that and headed out, umbrella in hand.

We braved the weather to go out to lunch because we promised Stella, and after all of us napped, Stella and I enjoyed some hot chocolate.

How do children always get these food and drink mustaches while us adults never do?

This happened Wednesday, but Stella gave Etta a bottle. I was realizing that we needed to give her bottles every week or so so that she doesn't forget and stop taking a bottle, so we decided this would be a fun opportunity for Stella to help. She did a really great job and seemed to really enjoy it:

And now, since this has mostly been a Stella post, a really cute 4-week picture of Etta:


I guess Stella's sick of the rain, she has declared that it is sunny outside (it most certainly is not) and that she wants to take Etta to see the chickens. Time for some distraction!

Quick Re-cap

I'm going to borrow the bulletpoint style from Kelli because that's all I have time for these days!

-Last Monday (April 6th), we went to the doctor for Etta's 2 week check-up. Her stats as of then:
Height: 21 inches (75th percentile. Obviously they didn't stretch her out all the way at the hospital.)
Weight: 7 lbs, 8.6 oz (25th percentile. I never thought I would have a baby in the 25th percentile in anything! There is nothing wrong with ANY percentile as long as a kiddo is healthy, but after having Stella, the super-chub, you just assume all subsequent chillins will take the same route. But it's pretty cool to have such a different experience this time. That said, I'm sure Etta will be a super-chub in no time!)
Head: 14cm, 50th percentile. I think that's exactly the same as Stella.
Overall, a clean bill of health from Dr. P!

Not too excited about leaving for her first walk
-This past Sunday, Etta had her first walk and first outing to the park. She was pretty unimpressed, but Stella had a great time, and it was a beautiful day. Being Easter, there were a ton of family parties in the park. Say what you will about our neighborhood, but its inhabitants know how to throw a party!

Chillin' on the bench with Daddy


-Monday, my maids came. My house was immaculate! I felt like we should just cover everything with plastic and move! Of course, we didn't, and by the end of the day Stella had already gotten footprints on the wood floor in the entry way, but the house still looks awesome. All the scrubbing and dusting is going to last for a while. And we have DUST-FREE BASEBOARDS! Awesome. We also took Etta for her first meal out, to McDonald's for breakfast. Then we spent the rest of the morning outside while the maids cleaned. It was very nice.

-We took out the bushes on the back patio and planted some new plants and it looks gorgeous. Our view is now completely unobstructed by those hideous bushes. We had to live with them for a while, though for me to be sure that they needed to go.

Before outside: (the only picture I could find quickly was from before we bought the house.)
After (obviously, we've made other changes as well, namely painting the house and the solar screens):It'll look even better once we re-do the pieces of wood surrounding the beds (we're going to probably paint them the same color as the house), and when the plants start taking off.

Before Inside:

After inside:
-I ordered a sit and stand stroller from Amazon last night. It's the Joovy Caboose and has really great reviews and was on sale, so I decided to go for it. The trip to the park Sunday convinced me that when I was by myself I needed a way to get both Stella and Etta to the park. We don't have sidewalks in most of our neighborhood, so it's important that Stella is contained.

I spent way too much time getting the perfect picture for the plants portion of this post, so I'd better get going if I want to get anything done today! It's back to normal life, as my mom is gone this week so we're having to do our laundry ourselves and procure food for ourselves. If you saw our pantry, you would realize we're doing terribly at this second thing!

Playing Dress-Up

Stella donned her full dress-up outfit she got from her MeMe and Pappy for her birthday this morning while playing with MeMe. It's so cute I had to share!

My Memory sucks!

I am trying to write my birth story and I shouldn't have waited so long. I don't remember stuff! I'm going to have to get Tim and my Mom to verify my facts. I did, however, FINALLY get the birth announcements completed. They just have to go in the mail. Hopefully it won't take me too long to do that!

A big difference between mothering one and mothering two

-This morning I chose reading "If I Ran the Zoo" to Stella over getting a little more much-needed sleep. (Hence the 2nd cup of coffee I am enjoying right now.)
-I let the dishes sit in the sink, or the floor go unvacuumed and play with my eldest daughter.
-If she asks me to do something with her, as long as I'm not feeding Etta, I do it. Not in five minutes, not later, but then.

And Stella is happy with these little interactions, even if they only last the length of a book. She understands Mommy is busy with Etta a lot of the time, and just spending a few minutes reading to Stella or playing with her or talking with her, is enough to make her feel special. That's awesome.

I guess I'm just saying that I value my relationship with her even more than I did before. Friday we went shopping, just the two of us, and had such a nice time. Even though we could only go for about an hour because Etta never stops eating;) Stella tried on clothes in the dressing room for the first time "because she's a big girl" (as she said). And Saturday, all three of us had breakfast tacos and just hung out enjoying the chatterings of a 3-year-old while Etta slept in the pack n' play in another room.

I think our lives may get a bit more messy, but it's going to be worth every speck of dust:)

(Of course, next week my fantastic, stupendous, wonderful, beautiful, sisters, Caroline and Christine, are getting me a maid. A MAID! YAY! So we're just doing the bare minimum not to drown in clutter, but leaving any big jobs for then. And my mother is here again this week, vaccuuming while I speak so I can sit and write this post, plus Tim has been wonderful about cleaning too, so we've been very fortunate!)

I cannot tell you how happy I am to be a family of 4. It's like my heart swelled again and I have more love and more happiness than I ever thought possible. I'm such a blessed and lucky woman!

Don't you have anything better to do

Than eat? Etta is unfortunately one of those "eat around the clock" babies. The longest she goes between feedings is two hours and when she does eat, she just sort of hangs out there forever. This is getting a bit tiresome, I have to admit. Stella went 3 hours between feedings, pretty much from the get-go and even though she'd nurse for an hour and a half at each feeding, somehow that seemed easier, I don't know why. I thought I was going to have to nurse Etta again just a few minutes ago, but she calmed down just being held and then passed out in the Moby. So maybe I can eek just a few more minutes out before I'm attached again!

Because of all this time that Etta demands to be fed, I have given up any hope of returning to normal life yet. I have resigned myself to having my focus be simply feeding Etta, sleeping and eating. It's not a very exciting existence, but I guess it's what I've got to do for at least a little while longer! So if you see Etta or Stella (or me!) in some bizarre outfits, you can assume I still haven't had time to do laundry! I think the hardest part is that Stella and Tim tool around and seem to be having so much fun, but Stella doesn't really want much to do with me. She adores Etta, but I'm chopped liver. Oh well, I guess that's to be expected!

Stella and Etta

My expectations of Stella's behavior with her sister have been far exceeded. Stella is just the sweetest big sister, always gently kissing Etta, wanting to see her first thing in the morning and first thing after her nap. In fact yesterday, she was like, "bring in baby sister" as soon as she woke up from her nap and I said that I had her and she just broke out into a wide grin when she saw Etta. She wants to hold her several times a day (of course heavily helped by us). I'm surprised because I thought she wouldn't find a newborn very exciting, but I was wrong. When we change Etta's diaper, Stella's right there with her step stool to help. If I need something, Stella will get it for me. And Etta is already enamored of her big sister. Seeing them together is so amazing!
Already sharing a joke.
Right now she's whining that she wants us to give Etta a bath immediately. We're planning to do it this morning, but at a more leisurely pace. Waiting is not a 3-year-old's strong suit, though.

I feel so behind, I have a 1,001 pictures to go through, but eventually they will be on smugmug, I promise! I also need to write my birth story before I forget it all. As I was telling Tim yesterday, it's so hard to transistion back to normal life after having a baby.

Good Family Photo from the Hospital!

I got Tim's Mom's pictures from the hospital and thankfully she got a good one of the four of us. I knew someone out of all those cameras had to have gotten a good shot!

Tim's Interview at the Austinist

Tim got interviewed by the Austinist today about Time Steps. Check it out.