Baby Play-date...And Mom Sanity Relief :)

Nothing like Starbucks and friends to help keep you sane on your second rainy day home on your first week of handling two kids! Makin had his official play-date with our two favorite baby girls, Leah and Emma. :) We had our first picture opportunity which we have been talking about FOREVER it seems and so glad we finally have all three babies out of our tummies to play together. More pics to come to show how much they continue to grow!

We Miss You "Ya Ya"

We were very blessed to have Brad's mom come and help us through all of this...we honestly don't know what we would have done without her and can't thank her enough for so much help. Our dishes and laundry were always done...and the house was kept clean, which keeps me way more sane in the chaos...we had yummy meals to eat...and of course the biggest help was that Lorelei had someone there to feel loved no matter how busy we were.




Big thanks to the rest of Brad's family for letting us borrow your favorite lady for a few weeks. Hannah and Karter - let us know if Grandma forgets to answer unless you call her "Ya Ya" :)

Although she is definitely named Grandma, this trip she was "Ya Ya" to Lorelei. :) Guess we'll see what she is called next time. We can't wait for another visit when Grandpa can come too...or maybe we will be able to visit them next...we'll have to see what the rest of the year brings!

We love you guys!

Hands and Feet

Going to do a frame with a foot pic, hand pic, and then cute one of the two kids in the middle. Any votes on which hand pic to use? :) Just wanted to share because I thought the pics turned out sweet.

First Big Outing

Saturday we took our first big outing together! We were able to venture out as a family and enjoy seeing some sandcastles at the Neptune Festival. Amazingly enough we only left the house 30 minutes later than planned, and that included finding a melted fruit snack in Lor's car seat which involved taking her up to change and getting the car seat cleaned out, so really it would have only been leaving 15 minutes late before that...then we did the drive thru at McDonald's and managed to eat in the car...and yes make sure you take note of how great a sport Grandma is to sit squished in the back with her grand kids...we are just thrilled to know it is possible for an adult to sit back there!

We arrived at the oceanfront and had to take quite a bit of time finding a parking lot with all the traffic. Then came the fun "Um...how do we open this double stroller again???" moment, BUT we eventually got it figured out. We also had to figure out how to strap on the infant seat and then we were on our way. Lorelei was excited to try out a new stroller and sit by her brother. We finally got to the boardwalk by 6:30! Not too bad considering... :) Then Brad, Grandma and Lorelei walked down in the sand to see the castles and I stayed up on the boardwalk with the stroller and tried to catch a glimpse of the castles as much as possible through the crowds of people! Then I found a spot to sit and feed Makin, got lots of "oooos" and "awwwws" from everyone passing by, and then eventually was joined by Brad and later the girls who had been busy playing in the sand with some new friends Lorelei found of course. :) We even ran into the Checks on their way out!

We finally got to our parking and realized it would take FOREVER to get out...so Brad went against BOTH women telling him "no way" and drove over the curb (whatever that thing is they put in front of cars to keep them from going forward??) and took a "dirt road parking lot" way out...have to admit I was thankful for an SUV and husband that decided to do it his way...but its a good thing we didn't have to pay for a tow truck. :)

We topped it off with an ice cream on the way home and then of course late bed time...I forget what time we finally made it home, but would consider it a pretty successful venture!

Getting Back To Normal

Just a few fun pictures we have been able to take our second week at home...I can finally start to play with my girl again! The hardest part for me has been not being able to spend time with Lorelei like I usually did. Thankfully she was thrilled to play with Grandma. Each day I have been feeling better and better and able to do more and more with her. Although she doesn't seem to miss us that much, I have noticed she seems to enjoy some snuggle time a bit more, leaning her head on my shoulder when I can sit by her on the couch and giving hugs when I say "love you" just makes my heart melt. I have missed her so much through all of this and cannot wait until we are able to be TOTALLY back to normal (well minus the little brother we are going to tote along now ;) ) and having lots of fun together.

Top pic was a very fun moment the other day when I had both kids in Lorelei's bed. This is now her favorite thing to do and every time Makin wakes up she says "Bed! Bed!" wanting him to lay in her bed with her. Such a sweetie!

One of our other fun moments hanging out in the big girl bed. She loves to have me sit with her and we were just enjoy some time together being goofy. :)

2 Week Appointment

Just a quick report that the 2 week appointment for Makin went well. He was up to 8 lbs 9.5 oz so the weight gain is going well. We can tell he is getting bigger! It was my first trip driving again and I survived that as well as having to wait a bit even though we were one of the first appointments. After a bottle in the waiting room he actually did great! Now he seems to be going through his 2 week growth spurt and eating even more often...so glad our boy is growing strong!

High Heels

Oh yes Miss Lorelei loves her high heels! They were a birthday gift from Aunt Heather and she has had them out every day. We had to crack up when we were watching Regis and Kelly the other morning. They had their high-heel-a-thon this week, so there were models showing various heels...Lorelei ran to her room and came strutting out modeling her own! Then she even ran in them! Thought you would get a kick out of it. :)

Sandbox

We have been planning to make Lorelei's pool into a sandbox for a while now, but wanted to wait until after Makin's arrival so that it would be something new to occupy her. Of course she is loving having her sandbox right outside and we are coming to grips with having plenty of sand inside as well. ;) So glad to give her something fun to enjoy and we don't have to leave the house!

Just a fun video to show her shakin the sand off. ;)

Out and About Weekend

Since Lorelei has been house-bound much of the last couple of weeks, we wanted to make sure she got out and had some fun this weekend since Brad was home. Saturday Brad took Grandma and Lorelei out to enjoy some breakfast at McDonald's and then a trip to the park. They had a lot of fun and Lorelei and Grandma even topped it off with a trip to Animal Jungle when Brad had to come home to work for a bit.

Sunday they took a trip to the oceanfront playground to get some more park time as well as have some fun in the sand.

Just Had To Share

another adorable brother/sister picture. :)

...and a moment of peace...both kids totally content, giving me a chance to get something done...hope we have many more moments like this. :)

Go Big Red!

I mean seriously? Can we get this girl to pose any cuter!? :) Our two little Husker fans all decked out for the game. Outfits compliments of Grandma of course!



Brad was excited we could finally get a Husker game on TV! Its always a challenge to get a chance to watch them here on the East coast so I guess we appreciate it a bit more each time we can watch a game. This time we had a lot of fun getting the kids all decked out with Grandma as well. We even had Lorelei saying "Go Huskers" (More like "go huh huh") and "Go Big Red" (more like "go reh" :) But it was a lot of fun. Lorelei played out on the balcony much of the time and then just had fun running around the house and playing some games with Grandma. Makin even woke up for a couple of hours just in time for us to get him in some pictures.

Fun with Grandma!



Well, we got ALMOST the perfect family picture, but poor Lorelei was a bit pictured out by this point, so this is as good as it gets for now. :) I would also like to point out the adorable dimple similarity with my two favorite men. Brad has a dimple on his right cheek, and so far it looks like Makin has one on his left. Hopefully it stays! :)


We had a great time watching the Huskers dominate the game and excited that it looks like a promising season! :)

Big Girl Bed

Thats right, Lorelei now has a big girl bed! You may be thinking "Why would they do this NOW!?" But we have good reasons. :) First of all, its a special treat for Lorelei, which we feel like she deserves all she can get these days. She has loved the idea of a big girl bed for quite a while now, but we have not been sure how it would go. She always LOVES Chase and Kira's big kid beds at their house, so definitely knew what was coming when we asked her if she wanted her big girl bed now. Second of all, since I'm not really supposed to be doing any lifting, this eliminates one thing that I would have to lift her into when I no longer have constant help around the house. We asked her about it Friday night and she was very excited. Brad got it changed in under 20 minutes and she couldn't have been happier! She even said her version of "big girl bed!" (Count that, three words together!) and was just soooo thrilled. She has done an wonderful job of staying in her bed as we have instructed her, and still yells for us to come and get her in the morning and after nap. The only kinks have been that she knows she can't leave her bed, so was yelling at us yesterday because two stuffed animals fell out and she wanted us to get them back in the bed for her. :) She also managed to end up on the floor on only her second night, so we may be looking for some kind of way to bar off the open area...not sure why they designed it like that instead of having it all on one side, but we will come up with something. She LOVES it. :)

Lorelei's First Week As A Big Sister

Overall Lorelei has been an AMAZING big sister. I guess I expected her to act a bit more jealous, but really she is just so sweet with him and the fits have been minimal...really not any more than usual for the most part. Of course this is mostly due to Grandma's constant attention, but so far I'm relieved. Mostly she has been just playing, playing, playing with Grandma. They go for walks and bike rides around the apartment complex. They also do a lot of playing with play dough and cooking! She spends lots of time on the counter making different meals and even a few treats! Lorelei is also a champ at posing for pictures, as long as they are with Makin! :) She even poses and says "cheese" when I don't have the camera so we have to make a mad dash! :) We are so proud of our little girl and know Makin is going to just adore her to pieces as much as we do. :)

Makin's First Week Home

Well we have had quite the week around our house! Bringing Makin home has been quite and event and going very well overall.

A few (ok maybe more than a few) highlights are:

Lots of meals from MOMS Group - we can't thank them enough for making it so much easier and not having to cook the first week! Not to mention I need to get a few more recipes to add to my collection! :)

Pediatrician appt Sat morning - he weighed about 7 lbs 14 oz I believe but still 95% of birth weight so not too bad. They told us to feed 1-2 oz every 3-4 hrs...this will change after Tuesday. :)

Appointment at CHKD - Tuesday we found out the surgery date will be the second week in Oct. Also encouraged that Makin is feeding very well. We are not sure if the surgery will involve the palate as well but will just have to wait and see during the surgery. If he is not able to close the palate another surgery will be a month and a half after the lip surgery. Will have to feed Makin with a syringe for several weeks after surgery...hope that will go well, although they say it will be very easy. :) Lets hope! Also found out we are supposed to feed him 2+ oz every 2 hours...basically feed him as much as possible to get him healthy for surgery. This has been going ok. He seems to have gone down on the oz he will eat most of the time, and we are mostly doing every 3 hrs at night for a little more sanity, especially since he didn't want to eat as much when waking him every 2 hours.

Paci - we got a special pacifier from the speech pathologist that we use some of the time. Mostly when he cries at this point we just feed him since they want us to fatten him up as much as possible! He does seem to like the paci though, so glad we have an option that works for him. It has a duck attached so that it will help hold it in his mouth. Great idea!

1st bath - the first bath was a normal newborn's first bath...screaming the entire time! :) We got the bathroom nice and warm, running the shower (at least there are a few things you remember from your first baby!) but he still was not a fan. This became our first major family of four event, as Lorelei was very concerned for her little brother closed up screaming in the bathroom! Thankfully his second bath went much better with no crying! :)

Adventures in diaper changing - well we are certainly learning one major difference with a boy in this department! We have already gotten some artwork on the wall and realized that we needed more sleepers as he is going through about 5 a day after managing to pee on them every chance he gets! I have gotten the diaper cover asap down pretty well, but still manage to end up with a few incidents. We also have the fun "wee wee tee pee" we got from Amanda that is a big help as well! We will get it down pat soon enough I'm sure. :)

Sleep - Makin is still enjoying sleeping much of the day of course. I am soaking up as much cuddle time as possible while Grandma is here to entertain Lorelei as I know soon enough he will be plopped into bouncers and swings as much as possible while I play with her. Its amazing how much more I love just cuddling now that I realize how soon that time will be gone and he will be running around with his sister. :)
Brad and I were taking turns on the recliner sleeping with him as he did not like sleeping on his own, but after a few days of that we tried the bouncer again and he is doing well with that overall. Jeanette (aka Grandma) suggested the bouncy seat IN the bassinet so that Makin is propped up for spit up purposes which was a WONDERFUL idea. As you can see in the picture he has his "room" set up with the changing table, bouncer and hamper. Poor guy! Thankfully he doesn't care at this point. :) As I mentioned earlier we are getting up around every 3 hrs to feed him and sometimes it takes a bit for him to get back to sleep. Sometimes he wakes us up every two and of course we change and feed him then. Definitely have taken up drinking coffee and come up with a home-made mocha concoction for now. :)

Boppy and Swing - he sleeps very well in his swing when we need to put him down somewhere which is great. He loves time on his boppy pillow (got again for the reflux tendency so don't want to lay him flat very often) and loves to look around at all the action from his soft pillow.

We are so blessed to have our little boy home with us. :)

Makin Bradley Is Here!

Okay not enough energy to write a blog entry right now...but wanted to at least get some pics up for family...esp the grandparents who can't be here with us!

Enjoying Grandma Time

Brad's mom arrived Sunday afternoon and Lorelei has been enjoying having lots of Grandma time. We made a trip to the Botanical Gardens Monday which was a lot of fun. The rest of the time she has just enjoyed having someone new to play with around the house. She has lots of fun so I'm sure she will enjoy her time while we are at the hospital.



We also got to enjoy a yummy supper at Red Lobster for my "last meal" before the big day. Right now I will finish getting packed up and somehow sneak in a snack around 11:30 before our 7:30 AM c section in the morning. And the next blog will have our newest addition. :) Looking forward to sharing it. :)

2 Year Professional Pics

We decided to make sure and get some studio pics for Lorelei's 2 year pictures. It went amazingly well this morning. Lorelei was great and as a result we got some awesome pictures! Yay! :) The photographers were so quick and get all the credit for these natural smiles. Mom and Dad were definitely not considered the funny ones this morning!

We got the prints 20 minutes after picking them out and were on our way to enjoy Zpizza for lunch. Was an overall fun morning and I realized at some point today that more than likely a week from today we will have our new little family all home together! Amazing what will change in one week!

Here are just a few or our favs...not all of them got printed. We ended up picking 6 of them to print in various sizes. Let me know if you have any requests before we mail them out to you or give you them for your frig. :)

Lorelei Turns Two

Birthdays are always big celebrations around here, and I can't really believe we are already celebrating spending two wonderful years with Lorelei! We had a great day today and just wanted to share.

First things first of course - presents! :) We were very excited to see her reaction because we ended up finding a tricycle for her! We realized after her obsession with Kira's bike, it would be a huge hit, but weren't sure it was worth getting...I just happened to take a quick look at craiglist (of course, right?) and found one that normally sells for $120 for...get this $10!!! Couldn't miss that chance, and its actually the perfect trike because it has a long handle for the grown ups to push so I don't have to hunch over! It is also removable for when she learns to do it on her own. :) Thought you might enjoy the early morning reaction. :) She was very excited. And in case any of you know me very well...yes it is driving me nuts to have a primary colored bike with an Abby pink and purple helmet and horn, but it makes her happy! :)



Mickey Mouse pancakes! This is a tradition from my family that we enjoy doing for our birthdays as well. She was very excited and ate her whole pancake along with lots of strawberries. Brad went into work a bit late so that he could enjoy the morning with us. It was especially important since she even slept in this morning!







And this is how we pretty much spent the rest of our day! Lorelei wanted to go ride her bike immediately after breakfast and made sure to let me know she was not happy I was making her wait while I got dressed to take her out...this is why she is riding in her pjs! There was no way I would get her to wait to get dressed. She rode for about 45 minutes first thing this morning. We did enjoy some indoor play time with her other new toys. Then we went to McDonalds for a treat for lunch, and as soon as we got back we rode for 30 more minutes, only because I made her go take a nap...and as soon as she was up from nap instead of the usual "Mom! Mom!" I heard "Bike! Bike!" and walked into her room with her jumping up and down ready to head out again. This lasted at least another hour or so. She loves honking the horn and I have to remind her to steer quite often. Thankfully there is a lock for when you are pushing the handle so she can only slightly steer, but she is still getting the hang of it. I think Grandma and Nana will get a good work out while they are here...hopefully the weather will cool off for them!




















We had a fun lunch at McDonald's and even topped it off with her first (as far as I remember anyway) official ice cream cone! She even got sung to from Nana while she was there. Then that evening she was serenaded from Grandma, Hannah and Karter and of course Brad and I with her birthday cupcake! :) What a lucky birthday girl!

TWO!!!

We have been practicing and she definitely has it down pat now. :) She has been able to tell people for a few days so that has been a lot of fun. She holds up the two pointer fingers because the normal way of holding up two is just too tricky! :)

Water Fun

I have been very sad thinking about the fact that this is Lorelei and My's last week together just the two of us. This meant I was determined to make sure and do plenty of fun stuff and very few errands, despite the heat. Tuesday we decided to try out the pool at the YMCA very close to our house. The first try is free and we had heard it was a fun place to go. As you can see it is full of potential, but this girl was not really ready for it yet. She still does not like water getting in her face with all the fun splash things. After trying out the turtle slide and mushroom in the kiddie pool, she decided she would rather just sit on the edge and put her feet in the water. Thank goodness it was free! :) Since I was already in my swimming suit I told her we could go swimming in our big pool at the apt, so we headed home and spent about 30 minutes swimming before calling it a day and having some lunch.

No pictures to speak of but we then went to Botanical Gardens on Wednesday for playgroup. She did a bit of splashing in the fountains but had a lot of fun exploring the children's garden instead. We even saw a lizard! :) Of course she tried to catch it. :) I was trying to give myself a break so we at least took the tram, but I was beyond exhausted on the way home and decided we had better make sure the rest of our week is fun INSIDE because this heat being 9 months pregnant just isn't the greatest idea! :)