These Two

So much I want to remember about these days.

Cooper is in Pre-K and loving it. Many of the kids in his class have been together for 2-3 years and they are a great group. He loves his school friends. He's doing Little Kickers (soccer) after school on Mondays and loving it. We're impressed with his kick! Having to miss lots of school days recently for sickness was a bummer.

He loves playing chase with his friends. Imagination has exploded and they make up silly games - from "sea monster" to fighting fires. He exaggerates profusely - everything is the biggest, best, worst, etc. My favorite phrases are "Mommy, we have a big problem" or "Mommy, this is serious".

Over the past couple of months, his reading has taken off. He sounds out 3-5 letter words consistently. Still working on writing. Not a big fan of anything that involves drawing/coloring/writing, but he's coming along. Can't believe this kid is starting Kindergarten next fall!

A quick trip to Target (which involved a blue Icee) on the first day of school

Showing off the vampire teeth at Emanuel's party

Pumpkin picking

Hanging out with the llama at Gwen's party

Eliza just turned 8 months. She weighs 17 lbs. She continues to amaze us with her physical development. She crawls and pulls up easily and will probably be walking within the next month. It's funny to see such a little girl moving around like that.

She's been sleeping through the night since early September. Whew. Only downside is we're spoiled, so one tough night now feels really, really tough. And she is a really early riser - before 6am most days. Last week she got her first cold and double ear infection. She was in a great deal of pain and refused to sleep in her crib for several nights.

So far so good on the eating front. Eliza's not a big fan of baby food, but she's ready to eat the real stuff. We've tried banana, oranges, beans, muffins, cornbread, sweet potato, potato, lima beans, and peas and she hasn't turned anything down yet.

Her favorite sounds are bababa, mamama, and dadada. And squealing/shrieking (a lot).


She continues to be a happy but expressive girl. She's into everything, especially all of big brother's toys, and never stops moving. When she doesn't like something she lets us know. She's a bit sensitive like her mommy and doesn't appreciate loud or sudden noises. She keeps us on our toes and we love her to pieces!

OBX 2014

We took our annual OBX trip last month. It was definitely our least relaxing vacation to date! With a 4.5 year old, a 1 year old, and a 6 month old in tow, we expected that. We didn't plan for Jason to get sick in the middle of the week though! Regardless, it was fun and we made good memories. We celebrated Andrew's 1st birthday, hung out on the beach, dug in the sand, and ate lots of food. Cooper was really into boogie-boarding (which he calls surfing) and he loved riding the waves in the ocean. He also liked for me to bury his feet in the sand. Joe's parents taught him how to play Go Fish and it was priceless to watch. Eliza took her fair share of beach naps in our arms, and she practiced her new skill of crawling. Andrew is an active guy, but a master beach-napper. Carrie and Joe actually got to relax some on the beach. So jealous, you guys! Haha. We all enjoyed some dips in the pool too. We young moms and dads got to go out for dinner one night. So nice to have adult conversation and a relaxing dinner for an evening. Already looking forward to the next beach trip (and hoping it will be a smidge more relaxing)!

                                           

  

                                            

 

Eliza - 6 months

Miss Eliza just passed the 6 month mark. Her first year is going by so fast! She's just under 15 pounds (28th percentile) and about 26 inches (65th percentile). Still on the petite side but closer to average than a couple of months ago. She started crawling 3 weeks ago, just before we left for a week at the beach. Then she started pulling up. Fully expect her to be walking in the next couple of months. She's always on the move, never still. I should have known - that's how she was in the womb, too! She continues to be a very happy baby and so far pretty go with the flow. She seems to have gotten her mommy's sensitive side, as loud noises and strangers who get in her face sometimes make her cry. Not a good napper unless held or in the swing. She's been sleeping through the night some - hoping that will become more consistent! We've given baby food a try. She's not really into it but seems very interested in real table food. Continues to adore Cooper and everything about him. She wants to be wherever he is and play with his toys (and ironically he wants to play with hers.) Cooper is still enamored with her. That said, he did his one and only mean thing to her recently. She was sitting up and chewing on the handle of a reusable grocery bag, which he didn't like. When I didn't correct her, he took matters into his own hands and pushed her over. Needless to say, she didn't appreciate that too much!

 

 

Eliza - 4 months

Eliza had a good 4-month check-up. We didn't realize she was such a little peanut.

12 lbs. 12 oz. (20th percentile)

23.5 inches (12th percentile)

For fun, here are Cooper's stats around the same time. He was 15.5 lbs! Look at this chunky guy.

Cooper at 4 months

Eliza at 4 months

Back to Eliza, she is already teething! We've had some rough nights, but even when she's uncomfortable and awake all hours of the night, she's all smiles. Such a happy baby.

We recently tried pears, her first solid food. She did well on the first try, but has spit them out each attempt since then. No hurry to push the solids, just tried it for fun.

Eliza took her first swim over the weekend. She was tentative at first, but seemed to enjoy it after awhile. Cooper is loving the pool these days so she'll get plenty more chances!

Quick update

Cooper still loves his role as big brother. I just hope the sweetness lasts! It's been really fun to watch him grow. This week he faced one of his biggest fears - pooping in the potty - and we are so proud/relieved to see him reach this milestone after working on it for OVER A YEAR. This is big news in our family, no matter how gross it is!

Eliza is pure sweetness. She's all smiles except when hungry or tired and she absolutely adores watching her brother run circles around her. I think she's going to get whiplash one day from following him around the room with her head. She hit a rough patch with sleep just before I returned to work (of course!) and then we got into a groove again. She still has a hard time sleeping soundly in the early morning hours but it's getting better. Otherwise, she typically eats just once in the night (around 4 or 5am) and then goes back to sleep till 6 or 7. Her newest trick is rolling over. She likes to show off a lot and will hardly stay on her back. Getting stronger by the day...she may be mobile sooner than we're ready for! We'll get official stats on height/weight at her 4 month appointment on Monday.

Mother's Day with my babies

 

All smiles

More smiles

Life with 2

It feels like we're finally getting settled into our new life as a family of four. I've even sort of figured out the stay at home mom thing...now that I'm less than 2 weeks away from going back to work. Ha!

Cooper continues to be a great big brother. No matter how jealous he's bound to feel sometimes, he has never taken anything out on Eliza. He's very sweet and loving towards her and we're so thankful for that. It's amazing to see how his big brother role has helped him grow. He's more independent and learning how to do more for himself each day. Last week I let him play in the backyard by himself while I was feeding Eliza (as I watched from the window) and I couldn't stop thinking what a big guy he's become. On another note, he has recently started describing the timeframe of events as "before my baby sister was here". Sort of like B.C. and A.D. It cracks me up!

Eliza is doing great. She is a champion sleeper and eater. Most nights she wakes up once to eat, usually around 4 or 5am. After getting terrible sleep for Cooper's first 14 months, we know how incredibly lucky we are for this! She has her fussy moments but is a generally happy, smiley, cooing (love the coos!!) baby. She's just over 11 lbs and quite sturdy. I'm still stealing as many newborn snuggles as possible, but also feel a little more "free" as she's becoming more content not to be held all the time. Overall she's a joy. I'm truly going to miss spending each day with her when I'm back at work.

Big brother

                                  

Fresh air!

                                 

All smiles for Grandma

                                 

                                 

Cooper and our neighborhood friend Brady

                                

Trying to keep sister happy

                             

Sibling love

                   

Ceiling fan fascination

                              

Water table fun

                                

                                 

Time with Daddy

                          

Hello, beautiful

                               

Betty Anne and Eliza Easter weekend

                               

Gigi and Madeline - so cute!

                                

                                 

Eliza - 5 Weeks

I did weekly updates when Cooper was born, and Eliza's first 5 weeks are essentially undocumented. No blog posts since announcing her birth, and we haven't taken very many pictures except randomly whipping out our iPhones. Poor 2nd child! Hoping I can finish a quick post before she is ready to eat again.

Overall, Eliza's doing great. We're sleep deprived and even though we knew it was coming, it's REALLY hard. But the biggest adjustment is juggling 2 children...especially for this girl who works outside the home and isn't used to spending every day all day with kiddos. I am learning how to be a stay at home mom for these 12 weeks! We have lots of family willing to lend a hand and have relied on them quite a bit. I don't know how people do it who don't have family close by - they are stronger than I am! At the same time, I'm doing my best to enjoy this time that I may never have again where I can be home with my babies.

Cooper is a great big brother. He's had a few challenging days but nothing we didn't expect. The first couple of weeks he completely ignored Eliza, but now he loves on her, calls her silly names, and seems pretty enamored. Hope that lasts!

Anyway, back to an update on Eliza's first few weeks:

-She was a pretty perfect little baby for the first couple of weeks. Eating well, gaining weight perfectly, sleeping a lot.  From the beginning she had her days and nights straight. She even seemed to understand how to eat more during the day so we could have longer stretches between night feedings. From the beginning, she has done 4 and 5 hour stretches completely on her own most nights...not intervention from me.

-Around 3 weeks, she started to get congestion in her nose. It was manageable during the day, but at night she would grunt and snort because she couldn't breathe well on her back. She was sleeping ok but we weren't because she was so noisy! And we were worried...Cooper had been sick and it seemed she was getting his cold. After a couple of doctor's visits that week, she was diagnosed with RSV. We've heard horror stories about hospital stays with other babies. Thankfully her condition never got too bad and she is fully recovered now. Whew.

-Last week (4 weeks of age), things started getting pretty tough. She seemed to be so uncomfortable and fussy all the time, plus she was grunting and groaning during the night, agitated while eating, spitting up more, and refusing to sleep unless held. After a particularly trying day this week where I literally held her THE ENTIRE DAY we decided to check with our pediatrician. One visit and she was diagnosed with reflux. We've been there before with Cooper and our niece was recently diagnosed...so apparently it runs in our family. Well, we're on Day 3 of the meds and today was remarkably better than the past 2 weeks! Hopefully we've found the problem and are headed in the right direction. She weighed 9 lbs. 9 oz. on Wednesday so weight gain is great!

-My sister came to town a couple of weeks ago and we were lucky enough to spend time with her and meet baby Madeline, our niece who is 1 week older than Eliza. So fun to let these sweet babies meet! I hope they are great friends even though we live apart.

Eliza Marie

Introducing Eliza Marie Huffman!

February 12, 2014

7:03am

8 lbs. 2 oz.

18 inches long

We are so happy to meet her. She is a doll!

Miss Eliza made a quick entrance into the world. Serious contractions began around 1:15am on the 12th. We got to the hospital around 2:30am and I was 4cm dilated. Got the epidural at 5am, and the nurse checked me just before 7am to discover that I was 10cm dilated. At that point, nurses started rushing into the room and we heard one of them say "Dr. Feore is getting out of the shower now". Dr. Feore rushed into the room, I pushed for about 2 minutes and there she was! Later the nurse told me it was 4 minutes from discovering I was 10cm dilated to the time Eliza was born. She was ready to make her appearance!

We chose the name Eliza simply because Jason and I both liked it. Marie is my mom's middle name and we really wanted to use a family name from my side of the family since Cooper's middle name came from Jason's.

So far, we are doing very well. Eliza has been opposite of Cooper in every way. Eating better, sleeping better, basically fussing only when she needs something. I realize it's only Day 4 of her life and things could change at any point, but it sure has made things easier as we adjust.

Looking forward to (and a little terrified of) this next chapter of life. It truly feels like our family is complete!