Easter & Anoli

"Auntie" (as Ruby calls her) Anoli traveled out for a visit over the Easter holiday.  Often, Ruby talks about Auntie in her play.  For instance, she likes to use one of the dog beds as a pretend boat and will often tell me that she's taking the boat to Auntie's house.  It's pretty cute.  So, having Auntie here in the flesh was a huge highlight for Ruby.

I think they were both thrilled to spend time together.

But this visit wasn't only about Ruby.  Anoli was also there to meet her newest niece and help me around the house with two littles around.  Anoli discovered the phone-playing-music trick with Mila: when Mila gets fussy, she seems to like being swaddled up and rocking (haha…no pun intended) to music.  Anoli and I would take turns grabbing a phone with Pandora playing and rocking Mila to calm her. 

She was super helpful around the house and I was actually able to get some projects done (feeling accomplished - woohoo!!).  But it wasn't all work.  Easter Sunday (which occurred in the middle of her trip here) was a day of worship and fun.  We began the day with the discovery of the Easter baskets!  Ruby loved her Easter basket, which was overflowing, thanks to Auntie and Oma (from afar).

Mila's was smaller, but appropriate for a newborn.

We attended our church's early service and then headed to the Lander's house for Easter Brunch.  I'm so glad Anoli was in the family photo this year.  Mila is hamming it up for the camera by sticking out her tongue.  Guess there's always one in the group!

Me, Ruby, and our gracious host, Connie.  We celebrated Easter at their house last year, so now we consider it a tradition.  Now we just have to figure out how to keep up the tradition with this whole moving-to-Spain thing.

Since it was wet outside from a recent rain shower, we had an indoor egg hunt.  Ruby LOVED it!  I could barely take a photo of her, she was going so fast.

Most photos came out like this, a complete BLUR!

It was so different from last year when we had to convince her to pick up the eggs.  This year she was so excited to find them and put them in her bucket.  I tried to get a photo of her with them, but she couldn't pose without giving me an overly cheesy smile due to her excitement.

Later, Ruby and Noa spent some time playing with her favorite toy at the Lander house: the ambulance.  Seriously, she loves this thing.  Hmmm…maybe we have a future EMT on our hands??

Oh, and I can't forget a pic of Mila in her Easter best.  She wasn't too keen on the idea of photos either, but at least she wasn't crying in this shot! Oh, and yes, the clothes are huge on her.  They are size 0 - 3 months and she's swimming in them.  I guess Team Juloa will always make small babies.

1 Month!

Over the weekend, it happened.  Mila turned one month old! 

Current stats:

Age: 1 month

Weight: close to 8 pounds (guesstimate)

Length: 20 inches (guesstimate)

Sleep: short naps during the day, 2 - 3 hours between feedings at night most nights

Eating: exclusively breast fed, sometimes goes through cluster feedings, will accept a bottle

Appearance: gray/blue eyes, light brown hair.

Just looking at her, Mila reminds me of Ruby around this time.  Here's a comparison of their one month photos:

Mila, however, is quite different than Ruby.  She is a great eater, in fact she often eats more often than expected.  I've had days where I've been stuck on the couch most of the day because she was going through cluster feeding sessions.  Thankfully breastfeeding this time has been a little easier since I've been down that road before.  

I often describe Mila as being a needy baby.  She would prefer to be held and often throws a fit if we try to stick her in the swing or play mat to "hang out."  I often wear her in the Moby or Ergo in order to just get stuff done, although even that doesn't always work for her.  During the day she will catnap and then demand to be fed.  Since she is often feeding, I am often stuck on the couch which makes it hard to get anything done or play with Ruby.  Now that she has crossed the one month mark, I feel like she is finally starting to sleep in longer stretches and is *beginning* to tolerate some time in the bouncer, swing or play mat.

Just like big sister Ruby, Mila has very specific preferences about things.  She HATES to be cold.  Trying to take her one month photo was a challenge, even with the fireplace one and a heating pad under the quilt.  Most of the photos turned out like this:

And then I tried to give her the soft, fluffy rabbit.  Yeah, she was not a fan of that idea.

This past month has been a bit of a blur.  I'm still learning how to manage TWO kids and manage the rest of life.  It's a learning process for sure.  We've decided to keep Ruby in day care a few days a week in order to give her some continuity and activity, as well as give me time to rest or take care of business.  

I was truly thankful for the help I got early on from family and my sister will be here soon to help out as well.  This parenting thing is not for the weak, that's for sure.

I feel like Mila is just starting to blossom and show us who she is.  She seems bigger (although she's still wearing newborn clothes) and has started to develop more muscle control.  She'll turn her head towards music playing and has become more tolerant towards diaper changes.  Although I love newborns, the newborn stage is not my favorite since there is so much crying and very little feedback from the infant.  But, seeing her growing is great feedback and soon enough she'll be smiling and cooing, which will surely make me melt.

I love watching her sleep.  She looks so peaceful.  Although I can't watch her too long before I start to drift off to sleep myself! 

Ruby is adjusting to being a big sister.  She loves to help, like getting diapers and wipes, although she does need monitoring around Mila since sometimes she tried to help by poking her eyes when she's crying.  Lately I've noticed that she's having a hard time not being the baby anymore, like when she asked me to hold her like I hold Mila.  Both Noa and I are working hard to be sure to give her the one-on-one attention she used to have when we can.  

Another way Mila is like Ruby is her hands.  Mila loves to be swaddled, but it's hard to contain those hands.  They are often doing Houdini-like moves right after we swaddle her up.  Usually, at night she is double swaddled in order to keep her warm and keep those hands in place.

And, yep, she's a binky baby!  Ruby took a binky for three months.  I wonder how long Mila will keep it? And, when she does ditch the binky, will she become a thumb-sucker, like her big sister?

This little one has certainly made life busy, hectic, and incredibly full.  I can't wait to see who she becomes in the coming months.

Family Visit

Mila is four weeks old today.  Already time seems to be slipping by so fast.  I've been noticeably absent from the blog due to having a newborn in the house, tending to the rest of the family (including the dogs) and visiting with my parents.  My mom arrived at the house a few days before Mila's birth and my dad arrived a couple of weeks after.  It was a huge blessing having them here to help out and distract play with Ruby during my recovery.  They left last week and I am definitely feeling their absence.  I'll be blogging about the birth story and Mila's first few weeks soon, but before that, I wanted to share some (okay, A LOT of) photos from their visit.  

Mom and I had some good girl time getting manis and pedis.  This was taken 2 days before I had Mila.

Mom (Oma) took care of Ruby while we were in the hospital.  This photo was taken when Mom and Ruby met Mila for the first time.

Mom was hard at work here with the cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the Rubster while I recovered.  She was also busy with random projects, like making a slipcover for my Boppy pillow.  The project turned out to be more of a challenge since she was working of directions from a Pinterest link I found, which proved to be incorrect with the sizing.  Mom may not want to tackle a sewing project for me again after this one.  But, I love the final product!

  

Mom actually arrived with her own project in the works.  Like she did for Ruby, mom made a quilt for Mila.  Using a pin from my Pinterest page, mom replicated a quilt that I had found online and finished the backing and edging while here.  I love it and I'm sure Mila will too!

 

The other project from my mom arrived in the mail.  She actually had been working on it for months and it was a total surprise.  She took this photo of Ruby (one of my all-time favorites):

 

And used it to create this piece:

It's hard to believe that someone could cross stitch a photo, but she did it and in blacks and whites.  It's pretty incredible.  It is so detailed and looks just like the original.  We've already hung it up and keeping our fingers crossed that we'll have one of Mila some day too.  Take note of that, Mom....

My dad arrived a little over a week after Mila was born.  Sadly, upon his arrival, he started to feel poorly due to his allergies.  He ended up visiting a local urgent care center and eventually got diagnosed with bronchitis (he's actually still recovering from it in NH).  It was hard to see him pretty miserable during his stay, but I have to hand it to him, when he was feeling better (or had enough medicine in his system to keep him afloat), he was playing with Ruby or helping with Mila.

Ruby LOVED playing trains with her Opa.  I bought some extra pieces for our small track and they had a blast changing it up and using the new bridges.

And that wasn't the only train they enjoyed together; the mall train was pretty much a highlight of the visit as well (and no, I have no idea why Ruby has her hood on for the indoor train ride).

Dad had other fans in the house...the dogs pretty much followed him everywhere since they knew that he would give them lots of neck scratches.

The pacific northwest weather didn't always cooperate.  Most of our March days were rainy and cold, so we had to get creative with our activities with Ruby.  Mom had several cooking/baking projects to keep her busy and it was pretty adorable to watch them working together.  Of course I had to take a photo of the "apron buddies."

The cookies were a hit!

They also made jello jigglers....

 

...and assembled a salad together.

 

Oftentimes, on those bad weather days, we just stayed inside and Ruby played with her Oma and Opa.

 

Or, I handed them the baby so that I could take a break.  They were always happy to oblige.

 When the weather did decide to cooperate (and when it does, boy it's beautiful in western Washington!), we took advantage of it and headed outside.

These were taken in downtown Poulsbo...

 

...at Valley Nursery in Poulsbo... 

 

...planting on the back deck...

...and bubble chasing in the back yard.

 

 During my parents' visit, we tried to take family pics even if it was casual, like this:

Or a little more planned, like this one when we went out for breakfast:

This impromptu shot just cracks me up...Opa, Oma, Ruby, and...Sadie?  I guess she was feeling left out of all the photo sessions.

This is better:

I'm so glad Mila's first weeks of life could be spent surrounded by family.  Although not the visit we had planned in our minds (dad being sick, weather being crummy), it was still a special time for all of us and we already miss having Oma and Opa around.  We'll get to see them again this summer before we fly out to Spain. And then, I'm hoping they'll come out to see us in our new home overseas! 

Thanks for the wonderful visit, Oma and Opa!  We love you!