Legos & a Dancing Dress

This is becoming sort of a fun routine. :o) The last few mornings I have put Sophie in her bouncy seat where I can keep an eye on her and bounce her with a free foot while I'm getting dressed, and Mia has planted herself right next to Sophie with whatever she happens to be playing with. Today I got to watch Mia build towers for me and Sophie while wearing the flower girl dress from her auntie's wedding. You'll notice that she carefully tucked Sophie's tower into the strap of the bouncy seat.

Mia & Sophie

I wanted to share this shot of both girls. :o) Sophie is alert and looking at the camera, and you can see that Mia has become very interested in wearing her babies in the baby carrier. (Obviously, that's how I have been carrying Sophie quite a bit lately.) I'm so grateful for all the baby doll toys Mia got for her birthday, b/c she's got an outlet to mimic parenting Sophie...besides Sophie herself. You can see from the video below the risks involved there. Enjoy!

5 Weeks Already!

It's hard to believe, but our little Sophie is already over a month old. She's growing like a little weed, too! I weighed her yesterday morning, and she's already up to about 12lbs 3oz!! She's already gained over 3 1/2 pounds. That's nutty. But we've been nursing nonstop, so it makes sense. ;o)

Sea World

Jeff and I took the girls for a three-day weekend at Sea World in San Diego. There is a section of the park that is more or less geared towards toddlers called Sesame Street Bay of Play that is essentially a theme park within a theme park. There are three kiddy rides and and the rest of it is a water- and Sesame Street-themed playground. We spent a good chunk of Saturday and Sunday letting Mia run around the Bay of Play, which you can see some pictures of above. We also went to see one show, and we figured Shamu's Believe was the one to see if you're only going to see one. At the end of it, Mia was saying, "More animals. More animals." So I think it was a good pick. On our last day there, Mia got to meet Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie, Elmo, and Big Bird. The look on her face when she hugged Cookie was just priceless! :o)

Mia also seemed to enjoy walking through some of the aquariums (especially the ones that had any hands-on component), and she definitely loved the exhibits that let her touch animals. She absolutely squealed at the rays when they splashed at her. :o)

The Starry Night

Our little Sophie is a fan of Van Gogh. We have a print of The Starry Night hanging above our sofa, and whenever she's lounging on the sofa in her boppy, she stares directly at it. This morning I was holding a fussy Sophie in my lap while drinking my coffee, and whenever I sat back so I wasn't blocking her view of the print she would stop fussing for a bit to stare at it. I'm thinking I need to hang a print of The Starry Night in every room of our house! At the least, there is probably a trip to the museum in future. ;o)

Run Down: The First Few Weeks

Whew! What a blur it's been! :o) It feels like it's time for an update before the little details start fading. So here are some random things I've been meaning to post on...

Sleep: Sophie's sleep habits are pretty similar to what Mia's were at this age. She's waking me up about every 3 hours to nurse, and she's really good about going right back to sleep. The biggest difference with Sophie is that she's not a really big fan of sleeping by herself. She'll sleep for about 30 minutes or an hour in her basinet before waking up and crying until I bring her to bed with me. I told this to a friend of mine who then said, "Oh, so you guys are co-sleeping?" I think I said no, but only because I'm totally in denial about sleeping w/ my kid in my bed. That and my goal is to get her sleeping on her own mattress ASAP. I don't have a problem w/ co-sleeping per se, but I have a hard time staying asleep w/ a fragile 9-pound person next to my much larger frame. And I constantly wake up terrified that I've suffocated or squished her...

Our biggest challenge with sleep, however, has been the fact that the girls have been double teaming us. Literally the 2nd day we were home from the hospital, Mia came down w/ her first earache ever. Then she came down w/ a cough and congestion. And then she came down w/ a 2nd earache. So b/c she's been in pain and can't breathe that well, she's sleeping lighter than usual. We've had a couple of nights where I've been up all night nursing the baby, and Jeff has been trying every thing to get Mia back to sleep -- including driving her all the way to Pasadena and back. To top it all off, Sophie now has Mia's cold, and our pediatrician thinks Mia *may* have mild asthma. So Sophie is having a hard time breathing, and Mia is on a temporary inhaler. I figure if we front-load all this crap, it can only seem easier later. Righter??

Diapers: I decided that I wanted to try cloth diapering w/ Sophie since we have access to our own washer & dryer this go around. We used the disposables we received in the hospital and as shower gifts to get through the first week or so, and we've been using the cloth diapers since then. It has definitely meant a few extra loads of laundry each week, but it's not nearly as bad as everyone seems to think it is when they hear we're using cloth. I bought us a diapering kit from a company called Bummis that has 36 cloth diapers and 6 super cute waterproof covers that fasten just like disposables do. We don't us a "wet" pail (for those who had to do that back in the day). Instead, we store them in a "dry" pail. We have a waterproof laundry liner, and the whole bag goes right into the wash along w/ the diapers and covers. I've been washing diapers about every other day, and the yuck factor is actually pretty small. :o)

Postpartum: Despite the general lack of sleep, I'm actually feeling really good 3 weeks out. I desperately missing teaching Stroller Strides and attending my own workouts, but I've been walking with the girls in the stroller most days of the week. We get in a least 2 miles when we go out, and today we got in a little more than 5. Maybe it's because many folks are still newly resolved to get in shape, but I am seeing runners everywhere, and I seriously can't wait to join their ranks. I've been browsing upcoming race calenders to plan out the 2nd half of the year. I'm still about 3 weeks about from my postpartum check-up, though, so I'm still taking it easy.

Sophie's 1st Tub Bath

Sophie got her first tub bath this morning, and it went really well. As usual, she was pretty upset when I messed with her clothes and diaper, but she practically went back to sleep during the bath itself. Now that her navel is totally healed, I'm looking forward to more regular baths for her. :o)

LAFD Museum

Jeff and I took the girls to the LAFD Historical Museum yesterday so Mia could look at all the fire trucks on display. Predictably, the plastic fire fighter helmet (or "fighter fighter helmet", as Mia prefers to call it) was a huge hit, but she had a lot of fun operating the lights as well. Jeff and I loved watching her trying to fill out the jacket and boots they put out for the little kids to play with.

First Walk in the Double Stroller

About 7 days after Sophie was born, I finally felt strong enough to start walking for exercise. I decided to take it super easy though for two reasons. First, only a couple of days prior, trying to finish a shopping trip at Target was friggin' exhausting! I had that same feeling you get when you start walking around when you're running a bad fever. It's like you're whole body tells you that you shouldn't be doing this, but you feel it all in a very nondescript sort of way. Second, I started pushing myself to soon after Mia's birth, and managed to pull an abdominal muscle that went all the way to my groin just from walking.

So the first couple of days, I just circled my block at a toddler's pace (specifically Mia's) and came home. Yesterday, I circled two blocks w/ Mia in tow. And today, I decided to load both girls up in the double stroller and venture out a bit further. We managed to walk about 1.5 miles, but I kept the pace to a crawl. (It took me about 40 minutes to get back home.) I felt good before, during, and after. And both girls did great: Sophie slept the whole time, and Mia mostly played gently w/ Sophie's feet.

I thought it was pretty funny that Mia kept asking me where we were going. It made me realize that even though I've run countless miles with her in the stroller, we haven't run at all in the last 6 months. So we haven't really had the opportunity to chat while I run or walk until today because her ability to talk has developed so dramatically. I'm looking forward to working (slowly) back to running and being able to chat w/ her more as we start logging the miles again. ;o)

P.S. I have approximately a million photos like the second one above. I think Sophie must sleep ~22 hours each day. (This figure may be slightly exaggerated...) She's up for regular but short intervals of nursing, during which time she likes to look around and take it all in. But within a few minutes she's back to sleep, and during the day this is her favorite way to sleep. Maybe I'll make a flip book of her growth & development as it occurs sideways on the Boppy...