And it begins...

Mark and I just dropped off both Sawyer and Isla at daycare today which means I am officially back at work full time.  While Isla was happy as could be when I put her in the swing at her daycare, I definitely have mixed emotions.  I'm hoping this makes life a bit easier in that there's clear definition now between when I do work and when I spend time with the family.  That was the toughest part of the last few weeks for me - I was constantly trying to figure out how to balance the two, and now being able to focus on one and then focus on the other feels a lot easier.  That said, I do miss having Isla home with me, especially being able to hold her while she sleeps (I know, bad habit anyway...).  Sadly, it's only 9:30am and I already want to call the daycare to see how Isla is doing.  I've told myself I have to hold out till lunch.

In other news, our friends Chris and Taffi came by for lunch on Saturday. While initially shy, as soon as someone shows Sawyer attention she's sold. Chris and Taffi both spent some time coloring with Sawyer on her easel, and so I think they're friends for life now.  While we were getting ready for bed that night she told me "I like Chris, I like Taffi, they are nice".  We did some coloring on Sunday and she said "I'm going to color like Chris" and made lines with three crayons in her hand.  She thought she was so funny. 

Because we got hit with some more cold weather, and Sawyer is still working to get rid of a cough she's now had for two weeks we didn't take the kiddies out this weekend.  Sawyer was quite a good little girl.  We're still working to get rid of the whining, but since we finished painting her play room and put her toys back she's been a great little player. 

A few random items of note -

• I bought another box of clementines.  I swear she's had about 15 so far in two days.  She eats 2-3 at every meal, insisting on peeling them herself. 
• She also now puts on her underwear and shoes herself - Miss Independent.  That is, when we can get her dressed.  She loves to run around naked - and will just tell us over and over again that she is in fact naked. 
• Sawyer tells us to "talk about what we did today" when she goes to bed.  This is something that Mark started, but she's started making me do it when I put her to bed.  In fact, she says "talk about it" quite a bit.  I'm not sure if this is something they say in school to encourage them to discuss but when we read books, Sawyer will turn the page and tell me to "talk about it".
• Sawyer no longer wears a diaper for naps - we still put a pull up on her at night because about 25% of the time it's wet when she wakes up and I'd rather wait till I have better odds
• At dinner the other night, Sawyer was watching The Little Mermaid on TV and saw that something went wrong for Ariel and said "Jesus Christ" in an exasperated tone.  Clearly when she heard Mark say it earlier in the week after spilling some paint it stuck with her.  How her mind processes things amazes me because she will not only repeat but she said it in the right context as well.  Mark busted out laughing and now she's saying it more frequently because she thinks it's funny.  I'm just waiting for daycare to ask me about this.
• In fact, our little girl has taken to repeating just about everything we say.  Mark records Jeopardy on DVR and when he watches it, she will repeat every answer that he says.  It's weird.
• Mark and I both entered the world of I-Phones recently and it's amazing how quickly a 2 year old can learn how to use them.  Sawyer flips through pictures, plays videos, etc.  I haven't shown her any games yet, but I have a few to keep her busy at restaurants and such.

As for my sweet little Isla, that's just what she is.  She is a happy little baby who loves to be held, to stand up, and to lay on the floor and kick.  She doesn't like when she can't see you - i.e. if I walk away for a minute she usually cries, but otherwise will kick and coo away on the floor.  Though it's tough to remember, we both seem to think that she is far more smily than Sawyer ever was.  Isla has ridiculously strong legs, prefering to stand above all else.  She also gets complimented a lot on her neck strength (?).  Apparently other 3 month babies don't hold themselves up quite as much as her?  Who knows.  Isla is still working on rolling over.  I think we have a while to go before she gets it - she seems really content just rolling to her side and doesn't at all like being on her belly.  She alternates between sleeping well and getting up numerous times a night.  I'm wondering if being on more of a schedule with daycare will help us get a bit better at sleeping, and bring me a full night of sleep sometime soon.

Sitting in her rocker unassisted.  I was feeling guilty because I haven't scheduled any appts for pictures yet, and need to soon, so I tried to get a few cute ones of her in her rocking chair.  As you can see, Sawyer crashed and wanted in on the action.

Hanging Around

So today I find myself sitting here waiting for Isla to wake from a nap and thought I'd post some pics I took earlier in the week.  Since her morning nap was basically non-existant, only about 25 minutes, you can imagine how happy I was that her midday nap was 3+ hours.  Add that to a normal night of sleep, only up once at 5am, and I'm walking on air.

Thus far this week we have been home bound.  Sawyer has had a cough for about a week and Sunday night she woke up with a fever.  She ended up in bed with Mark and I which meant limited sleep for all of us.  In between drinks of water, trips to the potty, coughing in our face, kicking us to get a bigger space in bed, and just generally being a furnace we managed to get a bit of sleep and were very happy that Sawyer's fever broke by morning.  Her daycare was closed so we hung out at home regardless.

The weekend wasn't overly eventful. Some cleaning and painting of the playroom were our key objectives.  Although I don't know who I am kidding...cleaning hasn't been my strong suit.  Thank god we don't have a bigger house.  The playroom is almost done and hopefully will look good once my wall decoration arrives. I'll post the finished product....

Otherwise we played. Sawyer was pretty goofy running around in her underwear.  She now asks to go in the basement since we've moved our old couches down there and Mark snapped a few pics of her being goofy.  She should be a model these are so good.

 Zoolander - Serious Face

 Bruce Springsteen pose?

 Isla working on her tummy.  I've found she hates to just be on the floor but if i prop her on her boppy she'll tolerate it.  In fact, today she did it and was kicking so bad she pushed herself up and over the boppy and face planted on the floor in front of it. 

 Our curious little monkey.

My Funny Valentine

Really she is my little chameleon.  I think that she looks different in every picture I take, and right now she's laying on my lap and none of these seem to capture her either.  As you can see my little butterball is really filling out.  While her cheeks are nowhere near as big as Sawyer's were, I love showering them with kisses because they are extremely kissable.

Isla and I have been hanging out this week. Lots of random errands or projects for us.  She is back to not sleeping well and today it hit me the hardest - it's almost like I'm in a fog.  My 7am work call didn't help so hoping to catch up this weekend.

 Isla is getting to be much more fun. She is a smiley baby and gurgles and coos all the time. She found her hands this week and sucks on her fists all the time. When we lay her on her back she's started to roll a bit. She hasn't gotten to her stomach yet but just sort of idles on her side. She also has started to enjoy her bouncy chair and usually gives Sawyer huge smiles. On the occasion that Sawyer comes up and yells at her, she usually starts to cry.

Today marks Isla's 12 week birthday.  I have her home with me for one more week before she starts daycare which I think Sawyer will enjoy.  Sawyer's teacher will take her to see Isla in her classroom which is nice.  As for me, I'm looking forward to not having to hide baby cries when I'm on conference calls though I will miss having my girl with me.   

Baltimore

This past week I braved the friendly skies and flew to Baltimore with Isla and Sawyer.  I say braved because I wasn't at all sure how traveling with two by myself would be, especially because it seems Sawyer's new favorite phrase is "Don't tell me what to do".  I have no idea if she picked that up at daycare, or put it together on her own, but let me tell you I think my jaw dropped the first time she layed that one on me.  At any rate, we did in fact survive flying to/from Baltimore, and I'm now just sitting here thinking that five days went by way too fast. 

Our trip TO Baltimore was far less eventful than our trip FROM.  Despite having to get the girls up early and leave the house a bit after 5am to catch our flight, there were only 20 people on the whole flight and so we had about four rows to ourselves.  Not that we needed them - Sawyer didn't move from her seat and Isla slept most of the flight.  The four rows came in handy though because Sawyer sang songs for about 50% of our trip - the other 50% spent eating snacks.  She's not always quiet when she sings so atleast people didn't have to listen, with the exception of belting out "I LOVE YOU" during the Skittamarink song, which caught me by surprise.  In fact, the hardest part of the trip was going through security and taking Sawyer to the bathroom after our flight.  But all in all, Sawyer held my hand walking through the airport and didn't try to escape or run off.

I think Sawyer's snacks and lack of sleep caught up to her because on our ride to my parents house she started complaining about her stomach, her back, etc.  Everything hurt and she wanted out of the car seat.  So much so that she started coughing, then gagging, and then, yes - she threw up all over the place.  This was her third time throwing up ever (always in the car) and it has always had three factors - lack of sleep, poor food choices, and her working herself up.  Super.

Not to worry - we got Sawyer cleaned up and were able to start our vacation.  Sawyer is a huge fan of Grandma's toys, including Al's large collection of "people".  At one point she had my Dad looking all over the house for Mickey Mouse because he was missing.  Don't worry - we found him.  Grandma tried to give me as much of a break as possible with both of the girls, so she often had both of them hanging on her.

 While Isla got back on her normal sleep schedule - waking up only once a night - Sawyer had a tough time getting back to normal.  She was going to sleep late, waking up too early, and not napping well.  On the morning of the Disney on Ice show she woke up at 5am, and ended up like this during our drive downtown to the show.  Your eyes are not deceiving you - the picture is right side up - Sawyer is just falling over onto her lap she was so tired.

 The Disney on Ice show was great.  When the lights first went down she seemed a bit scared that they turned out the lights, but it was quickly replaced with excitement when she saw Mickey and Minnie.  This was a Princess focused show, so Jasmine, Belle, Mulan, Ariel, and Cinderella were all featured...her favorites.  We stayed for pretty much the whole show and every now and then she would just yell the characters name out when she saw them.  It was lots of fun, even for Isla who liked the music and lights until she fell asleep towards the end.  We capped the day off by meeting Grandpa for lunch in Fells Point and telling him about the show.

On this trip, I've learned that Grandma and Grandpa are suckers for their grandkids.  We walked into Disney on Ice and my Mom was offering to buy Sawyer one of those cheapo light sticks - something we would never have gotten when we were kids.  On top of that, Sawyer had my Dad playing with beads on the floor and even booted him from his seat at the head of the kitchen table because she decided she wanted to sit there.

Two minutes after I took this, Isla spit up all over my Dad's shirt.

We also hit up the Aquarium with Grandma and Grandpa.  Grandpa spent a good amount of time chasing after Sawyer or lifting her up to see the fish but I think we all had fun.  I think the Dolphin Show was all of our favorites - it is what Sawyer has been telling Mark about.

Playing with the pegs.

 A quick picture in her Church dress. 

 While the trip went by way too fast, the plane ride home could have sped up a bit for my taste.  We checked in and got through security fine, but our flight was 100% full which meant that we didn't have quite the space we did on the trip in.  Sawyer kept up a solid banter the whole flight but also was a bit of a menace hitting her sister and alternating from being really happy to really fussy in the span of a minute.  I will try not to focus on the bad behavior and just tell you that she offered a good amount of comic relief to our neighboring passengers.  As we pulled away from the gate  (when the whole plane was quiet) she yelled "We're moving! We're going to go up, up, up.  We're going to Michago (Chicago). We're going to see Daddy.  Daddy is going to pick us up.  I don't see him yet.  I see another plane!  Obama is on that plane.  He's going to Michago."  She had absolutely no inner monologue on this plane.  She sang songs, told me not to tell her what to do, yelled at Isla for kicking her - "Kicking is not nice Isla, say your sorry.  Don't do it again Isla", told people she had to go Potty, and yelled that she wanted to get off the plane.  At times funny, at times not.  I told her the flight attendant was the pilot to get her to put her seatbelt on or sit.  Every time he walked by she'd quiet down so he wouldn't yell at us.  Needless to say I was ready for Mark to tag in as head parent when we got in the car.

Isla hanging out.

 Quick shot with Grandma before we leave.

Houston, We Have a Problem

You probably all think I'm referring to the big snow storm we had in Chicago this week, but you would be wrong.  My problem is far bigger than two feet of snow.  Isla had been sleeping really well at night - 8/9pm till about 4/5am and then up to eat once and back to sleep till 7am or so.  All of that has changed in the last three days and she's been up 4 times a night to eat and another handful of times where she just cries for her binky.  Can I get a collective, "What the f?" (that's as clean as I can keep it people).  Once you start to see the promiseland of sleep returning, it sucks having it ripped out of your hands.  I'm hoping it's just been the cold Isla seems to have picked up and we'll be back to normal soon.

Isla smiling in her sleep (she often giggles or smiles in her sleep).

So with that said, we did have a rather big snow storm here this week.  We had about 18 hours of straight snow, thunder and lightning, and whiteouts from the 50 mph winds.  It meant that we were all together at home on Wednesday, and that I kept Sawyer home an extra day on Thursday.  Though her daycare was open, Isla had an appt with a pediatric cardiologist to check her heart murmur, and I wasn't going to be able to make it to both ontime with the roads as they were.  Sawyer was less than helpful during the appointment, which included a rather long ultrasound of Isla's heart, but we made it through and Isla received a clean bill of health, albeit with what we're told is a benign murmur.  After that appt it was clear I needed to find a way for Sawyer to burn some energy so in true suburbs fashion we hit up McD's for some Playland time.  Though at one point it seemed I was going to have to rescue her from getting lost in the maze, she eventually found her way out.  I can count on one hand the times that Sawyer has ever been to a McD's - having only eaten the bun of her cheeseburger and some ketchup from her Happy Meal, I now know why.

Naptime on the Boppy

Things returned to normal on Friday and Isla and I had the day to ourselves.  After a nice nap we hit up the mall.  As you can see, she had on a brown shirt and some ivory corduroys.  Despite the pink trim and bow on her shirt, every single person who said something thought she was a boy!  Boo - my girl looks so cute in brown.  She did score a frilly little purple sundress for the summer so perhaps one day people will believe she's a girl.  Sawyer also scored some new clothes for fall, including a camo green jacket that I love.

Not a whole lot else to report. Sawyer slept in today till 9:30am, which would have been awesome Pre-Isla but the two didn't coordinate for us. It did give us a very happy and relatively well-behaved girl for the day which was nice.  At naptime her and Mark fell asleep together in our bed - I got no pictures because Isla was sleeping on my lap - and she awoke with this gloriously curly hair.  Don't mind the puss face, it takes her a few minutes to warm up after a really deep sleep.

Before I forget, Isla had her two month doctor appointment on Monday.  She weighs in at 11 lb 13 oz and is 23 inches long.  If memory serves that was 75% for height, and 50% for weight.  Aside from getting VERY angry when she was given four vaccinations all was good.