My pretty girls

Sam has been doing well lately, although she did have a rough day at church.  She has not been napping too well, which makes her a bit rough in the evenings.  But mostly she is a joy.  She loves dressing up.

Here is Zoey in a new dress.

A closer shot.

Sleeping on the floor in the short time I was doing the dishes.  Of course, each nap tends to last only 15-30 minutes.

Sam wanted us all to wear snap n style dolls.  I even got involved and it look like the perfect fascinator for the royal wedding, but snapping a picture of myself with a hat did not go too well.

 Here is Zoey in her snap n style hat.

Here is a video of Zoey playing on her back with a nice smile.

Sam and Nick have been playing football in the house.  We have been getting a lot of rain and thus cannot go outside much.  Sam has quite an arm, even getting some spirals in.  Of course, sometimes she decides to send it the entirely wrong way.  

Recent Spring Pictures

I had not downloaded photos from the other camera recently.  We have been having a lot of rain lately, but we have also gotten a few nice days in there.  We went to the playground at a local elementary school.  It is a nice playground for preschoolers and Sam had a great time.  

She is a champion climber now and a bit of a daredevil. 

Sam likes to wear sunglasses since Nick and I do.

Sam in action.

We also recently went to the other side of the neighborhood which has smooth sidewalks.  Nick pushed Sam on the tricycle.

 Sam got tired of riding quickly and decided to push Nick.

As you can see, safety first.

Zoey snoozed in the stroller.

Here are the girls right before Zoey's 2 month check up.

Two Months Old!

We had a nice Easter.  We stayed in to avoid the massive crowds and not sacrifice 8 weeks of staying home. It rained a lot, so we even had to stay inside.

The girls did not get much, but Sam got a book that you use to learn how to write letters.  She loves it and is doing a great job.

There were also beanie baby bunnies for each girl which may or may not have been previously displayed at our house on past Easters :)

Sam actually received the purple, but wanted to trade and the purple one matched Zoey's outfit.

Her third outfit of the day after massive spit up.  Chillin' in a chair that used to be mine that my dad recovered.

And her official 2 month shot with the giant panda.  Unfortunately I did not start taking Sam's until 3 months old.  But Zoey cooperated and gave me a big smile.  In fact, she smiles so much it sometimes makes nursing hard.  She wants my attention, but when I look at her she smiles and stops sucking.  She is a happy baby and does not seem to be missing many meals :)

We made it!

We made it to 8 weeks keeping Zoey on near quarantine.  We went to friends houses and of course doctors visits, but not out in public.  We did eat out a couple of times at sonic since it is a drive in.  It has been a little hard, but well worth it keeping Zoey away from germs.  But I am super excited to now be able to go places with Zoey.  We are still limiting her exposure, but it will be great to actually get out of the house on a more regular basis.

We live near a creek that has ducks.  They come visit every now and then.  Here they are leaving our yard.  Sam loves feeding them.

 Sam got this dress as a hand me down from the family I used to babysit for (Thanks Stolovitzs').  She loves it and was jumping for the photo.  I was explaining hand me downs to Sam and she called them hand outs.  Hope she is not explaining that at school :)

Sam has really enjoyed wearing Nick's shirts lately.  Here she is in one from Nick's mom's school.

Zoey at 8 weeks.  She has not been napping well.  She sleeps well at night mostly, with a few bad nights mixed in.  But napping is hard no matter what we try.  She falls asleep easily, she just will not stay asleep.  Even if I hold her she tends to wake up after only 30 minutes or so.  We are working on it, but she is also still bad at the pacifier, so it is rough.  But I did get her to take a quick nap in the swing the other day.  And yesterday she napped most of the afternoon and evening, not sure if it was her shots or the lack of naps from the day before and morning.

A close up of sleeping beauty.  Notice that her hair is coming back in, still brown.  Maybe she will look more like Nick and he won't think I clone our kids :)

Here is Zoey before we went to the doctor on Friday.

And her 8 week stats:
She weighed in at 11 pounds 11 ounces (75th percentile), which is actually a bit lighter than Sam's 12 pounds was at 9 weeks. Not sure if Zoey will be up to 12 in another week, but they are close to the same growth pattern.  Sam has been underweight for so long, it is hard to remember she started out on the top of the scale.  Zoey was 23.5 inches long (90th percentile).

Zoey has been socially smiling for awhile.  It really is wonderful.  She also has started making little sounds to get my attention.  She is a sweet baby.  She generally makes small noises when she wants milk and gives me a chance to respond before she starts true crying.  And she really only cries when she is pretty hungry.  She does eat quite often, so I guess she does not have much to cry about :)  She may have to cry more when we start trying to work more on the nap problem, but we are not there yet.

I hope everyone has a great Easter.

Spring has sprung!

 We have been loving the nice weather.  Nothing like the joy of a preschooler and spring.  She really loved the dandelions.

Sam has been doing a lot better.  Our sticker chart and token economy seem to be helping.  She has also been waking up with dry diapers.  She has been day time potty trained for over a year, but the night time training has been a long time coming.  I think she just sleeps too deeply.  So it is wonderful that she has been making progress.  We have not pushed it with Zoey and all the changes.  But we do reward dry diapers.  This spray bottle was the prize she selected one day recently and she has had a lot of fun with it.

Sam has recently gotten into the show Super Why, which is great for early readers.  She is learning a lot and had a great time playing on the Super why website recently.

Zoey hanging out with daddy.

I have actually been really good about taking a lot of pictures of Zoey.  I always heard how you often let that slide with second kids.  The one thing I did let slide is pictures with me in them.  But yesterday Sam declared it was Notre Dame day and so we all were dressed in ND gear and I thought a picture was warranted.  Nick even had on an ND shirt, but he took the picture.

Here is a closer shot of Zoey.  The onesie is one I made for Sam with an iron on that says Daddy's Little ND fan.

We are trying to sell the eclipse, so Nick pulled the car seat out and put it in our living room.  Sam put her doll in it.

Sam continues to be an amazing big sister.  She loves to help and loves to hold Zoey.

Life has been really good lately.  Sam still has some school issues, but mostly is doing really well.  Zoey is a great baby, pretty laid back like Sam was.  She sleeps better at night than Sam did, getting up usually twice, but sometimes only once if she does not go to bed until about midnight.  She does not sleep very well during the day, especially in the swing, which is a challenge.  Sam loved the swing, so I could actually get things done.  I try wearing Zoey some, but she is not a huge fan of that either.  She also is struggling more with the pacifier.  Hopefully, we will get there soon.  They say second kids are usually better at sleeping since they are not the only one, but I guess that is only if you let them cry :)

Zoey's smile

Zoey is smiling a lot more now, but it is elusive.  Here are some recent attempts of catching it on film.

Here is one that clearly shows her baby acne.  Hopefully that will clear up soon.

6 weeks old a little late

We have been pretty busy.  The weather has been nicer, so we have been going to play at parks and such.  Sam has been giving us a bit of a rough time, too.  Not sure if it is her age or all the changes, but she has had issues control her emotions and we have tried most everything, but not much is helping.  Our back room is full of taken away toys, time outs did not help, and the token economy is failing as fast as the real one.  Hopefully this will pass quickly.

Zoey has been doing well.  Usually waking up twice a night, although she does stay up late and Sam gets up so early.  But overall she is a pretty easy baby.  Napping could be a bit better.  But she rarely cries unless hungry.  Just fusses a bit otherwise.

Some cute pictures...

I decided to be adventurous one day Nick was at work and I had both kids.  I put Zoey to nap in the swing and got Sam going on an art project with glitter glue.  Of course Zoey picked this time to have her first major blow out and of course it was in the swing.  Well, I had to take off the fabric, start laundry and give Zoey a bath.  When I got back wouldn't you know Sam had made a huge mess.  What a day!  Poor Sam got yelled at, an apology and since I could not take eating leftovers again, we all got in the car and went through the McDonald's drive in.

Zoey pre blow out.

 We have been working with getting Zoey to fall asleep in the swing and keep a pacifier in.  I found this cute Wubba nub elephant and it does seem to help if tucked in the straps.

Sam loves for Zoey to wear hats.  

My mom found these cute shoes.  They are currently a little too big, but I thought a picture would be nice.  Thanks Nana!

 Hanging with daddy.

The cute little sister!