The last of summer

Fiona was born at the end of Samantha's school year.  Nick, Zoey and I were done with the school year already.  Although Nick taught 2 in person courses and I taught one online this summer.  With a new baby and a major renovation project, summer really flew by.  After the first 8 weeks of mostly staying home, since Fiona was so young and it was so hot, we never really slowed down.

The girls like to hold Fiona.

We went to a church to serve food to those in need.

Sam is very helpful, she reads to Fiona when she is fussy.

Sam wanted to play flag football again.  They had a skills combine and she showed off some speed.

We went to a health fair and the girls got face paintings.

 A neighbor has been doing tennis lessons at our neighborhood courts.  Sam enjoyed them.  Zoey was not as motivated.  Unfortunately, they conflict with Sam's faith formation.  But Papa can work with her.

The girls see me wear Fiona and used these overalls to carry their dolls.  So cute!

 Zoey really made huge leaps in reading.  She can sound anything out now.  She just needs more work on sight words.  Such amazing progress, but less than I hoped for because of Fiona's birth and the renovation.

They opened a new splash park near us.

This amazing kid got to meet her teacher.  2nd grade already!

Sam has a super sweet teacher who happens to be the mom of a boy from Sam's class last year.  She is perfect for Samantha because she emphasizes that everyone makes mistakes and Sam needs that to counteract her unwillingness to fail and perfectionism.

Fiona hit 2 months!  She was 12 lbs 6 ounces, which was a bit heavier than Sam or Zoey.  But Fiona never misses a meal or refuses a feeding :)  She slept great when still swaddled, but when that stopped working, she went back to waking a lot.  She is now much better again, but it was rough there for awhile.

Here is the 2 month panda picture.

Some close ups so you can see her eye color.  They are already about as dark as Zoey's hazel eyes, so I am pretty sure they will be brown.

She smiles for much longer now, and is often very happy.  But her default expression looks a bit cranky.  But she loves interaction, so she smiles easily.

We tried to make the bassinet last for the stay at my parents, but she kept ending up in silly positions like this.  Although, this was also while is was slanted to help with the major spitting up she did in the beginning.  Making it flat bought us a bit more time.

Most of her day time sleeping was (and often is) while being held.  She is ok with the crib at night, but prefers arms during the day.  She is a a lucky third child since my mom is so willing to help.  Although, she still does sleep in a car seat or the ergo a fair amount.

A sweet smile.

July flies by

I have not posted in a looooong time because of our renovation.  We broke down our computer when we moved to my parents, so I had no easy way to down load and organize pictures.  So I will try and catch up.  The renovation post will come soon too.  We lived at my parents from July 18th-September 25th.  We are so lucky and blessed that they welcomed all 7 of us (dogs too).  And they were so super helpful.  Mom spent more hours holding a sleeping Fiona than I can count.  And Dad and Nick did a huge chunk of our renovation, including all of the painting.  We owe them so much!

But on to some recent happenings.  We went to a cafe where you get to interact with monkeys. Part of my did not like it, but the guy obviously really cared for his monkeys and they were never forced to interact with guests.  Unfortunately, a kid pulled the tail of one and it barely bit him, no open skin, but the mom was a lawyer and the place has now closed.  The girls really enjoyed it.  The monkeys had an enclosure in the cafe.

But there were also scheduled interaction times.

 Zoey was not sure at first, but the monkeys loved her.

And she came around.

We celebrated mom's birthday!

The girls went to a camps at a local gym.  It was partially science based, but mostly play and craft time.

We did a lot of swimming in my parents' pool.  Here is Sam jumping in.

And Zoey jumping in.

Zoey went to a friend's birthday party at Little gym.

We also got thumb guards for her.  The dentist said she is right at the border between braces for sure and preventing the need if she stops sucking her thumb.  She has almost completely stopped now.  It was a long battle for sure.

We went to a really cool playdate where you put alkaseltzer in film canisters with paint and the paint exploded onto the paper.

And here is some of Fiona from July.  She is not always a huge fan of pictures.

She started smiling, but they were so brief that I could never catch them.  Here is one, but of course it is blurry.

Here we are playing up-down, which she loves.

And Nana with Fiona.

Happy 4th of July (and Fiona is one month!)

Here are some recent pictures.  I thought it was hard to get pictures with 2 kids, 3 is such a challenge!

 

Sleeping babies in milk comas are so sweet.

This is how Fiona prefers to sleep when I do not swaddle her.  Swaddling helps her stay asleep better, but makes her very angry.

Sometimes she just does not want to do the whole picture thing.

And sometimes she is fine.

 

Here she is on July 2nd, her one month panda shot.  Hard to believe it has already been a month.  These first 8 weeks are such a paradoxical time.  They are amazing and awful at the same time.  I love the snuggly baby time and all the firsts for Fiona, but I hate the feeling of being overwhelmed.  I think Fiona may be our neediest baby.  It is hard to walk by the sink full of dishes, trying to do laundry one handed, and trying to balance baby needs and big kids needs.  And Nick stays pretty busy with his two condensed classes and meetings, so I have to do a lot one handed when Fiona insists on being held.  She also loves to cluster feed.  The other day I had to cook dinner while nursing, the things we do when we have to :)  These weeks seem so slow and so fast at the same time.  The nights in which I get only 3 hours of sleep sure seem long, but it feels like I just blinked and she was a month old.  I want to savor them, but I also want them to be over so life can be more normal. But I really try to enjoy what I can since I know this time is the last, and just push through everything else.

 

 

Here is a comparison of our three girls.  I think Fiona is between Sam and Zoey in face shape. Sam was very rounded and Zoey was more oval. 

The big girls are doing better, but they were really testing the limits, which is really tough when sleep is in such short supply.  They do love their sister and mostly are very helpful.   We were all getting a bit stir crazy since we have been mostly staying home.  We have had a lot of family time watching world cup, America's Got Talent, playing board games, and playing Wii. We have also been venturing out a little more recently, not any crowds yet, but playdates at parks or homes with small groups.   

Our first was a water wall one, the girls had a blast.

And a sharpie tie dye one.

We also went to a friend's sailing club for a celebration of the 4th.  The big girls and Nick built boats.  There was a lunch and a water slide.

 After lunch, they raced the boats.  Zoey's ended up sinking, which lead to many tears. But overall, the girls had a great day.  Nick even took them back for fireworks, which was a late night, but well worth it.

 

I hope everyone had a great 4th.  Here are our 3 firecrackers.