Cece Starting Preschool & Maggie 5 1/2 months

Cece 2 years 10 months

My first little baby started preschool last week! She was very excited to go and I had no idea what would actually happen when I left her for the first time. Well, the first day she said goodbye to me with no tears and we did our little goodbye routine (hug, kiss, high five, kiss on the palm of the hand to "save for later"). Her class is on Tuesday/Thursday for three hours in the morning. I called a few times to check in on her and they said she had cried for me a few times but was easily distracted each time. I wasn't sure if she'd want to go back but the second day, she packed up her breakfast and put it in her back pack with Patches and told me she was ready to go to school (an hour before we actually had to leave). Unfortunately that day and the next two times so far were MUCH harder at drop off and I walked out in tears as well. Luckily each time after she calmed down she had a great time the rest of the day and was happy when I got there to pick her up, telling me all about her day. She seems like such a big girl now. I really hope this works out with school because she loves doing activities, especially any crafts, and playing outside. So far I have noticed that she is much more interested in cleaning up after herself since she started school, which is amusing. Everything has to be put back in its place. I'm so unbelievably proud of her for being so brave with school. I know it must be very hard for her since she hasn't really left me before. It also makes me feel good that she is confident enough to enjoy herself at school even though she is upset that I left. I love picking her up and seeing her sweet, happy little face light up when she sees me.

Things that Cece says crack up Pete and I almost every day. I wish I could remember more of them but here is one funny thing. We have been spelling things when we don't want Cece to know what we were talking about. Well, Patches and Clifford have to come to bed with her and the other day Clifford was missing so Pete said "uh oh, where is C-l-i-f-f-o-r-d?" Cece looked at him and said "x-y-z. Clifford is in the car." She's getting too smart for us!

 First day of school                                                     Third day of school

 

 

Maggie 5 1/2 months old

Little Maggie is five and a half months old. She is just the sweetest little thing. She is SO smiley. It's almost impossible for me to smile at her and have her not smile back. She does the cutest little giggle too. She is so interested in everything around her. She especially loves to sit up and can last a few seconds sitting up by herself before flopping over. Yesterday I let her try a little taste of banana and she seemed to like it but barely swallowed any. I'm not going to rush starting foods and wasn't planning on giving her anything for a couple of weeks, but yesterday I was eating a banana and just curious if she'd like it. I sat her in her high chair today and gave her a spoon and she played with that for like 15 minutes which was pretty cute. She doesn't normally sit and entertain herself for too long. Maggie has been able to roll both ways for a while but doesn't normally do more than one roll. Now she is starting to move around a little by doing a couple of rolls in a row. Right now she is napping 4-5 times a day still (because most of her naps aren't very long), and goes to bed somewhere between 7 and 8 until around 6:30 in the morning, but is up many times in between. She sleeps in her crib that is attached to our bed until around midnight when she comes in the bed and snuggles with me until the morning. She is such a little snuggler. It makes me really happy that I can just enjoy her and not stress constantly about her sleeping and eating like I did with Cece. None of that stuff really matters. I have my two girls who I love more than anything and this time is going to fly by, so I will just enjoy them. And one day I will enjoy sleeping again.

 

First time sitting in a high chair out for dinner for daddy's 33rd birthday & first time eating solid food (some banana)

 

 

Some more pictures of our girls:

 

Thankful

It's Thanksgiving week, both children are miraculously napping at the same time, so I would like to take a minute to write about the things I am most thankful for (these beautiful sleeping girls).

Maggie is almost 4 months now which is just mind blowing. I feel like this makes me a legit parent of two now. I should know what I'm doing by now and be able to handle these crazy days. Pete was just away for a week in Seattle. My mum took the week off and stayed with us and it was so nice to have her here for the company and the help all day. Today is my first day back with just me and the girls after 9 days of having either Pete of my mum. It's actually going pretty well so far.

This morning we visited our 4th preschool and I'm finally able to make up my mind about where to send Cece. Luckily it was a relatively obvious choice once I thought about it. The plan was to send her next September when she's 3 1/2 but she had such a blast during all of the visits that we've decided to try sending her in January where she will be just over the 2 years 9 month cut off. So she will definitely be the youngest in the class but I've noticed that she plays better with kids who are older than her, so it might actually be a good thing. She will be going two days a week for three hours. I had been caught up in the excitement of picking a school and hadn't really thought about dropping my little baby off somewhere new and leaving her there for three hours, having no idea what happens while I'm gone. Now this thought is scaring me and making me feel sad. If she can handle it and adjust after a couple of weeks of going, I know I'll be proud of her, but I'm also going to feel sad that my baby is growing up. I already miss her even though I'm always with her. I just don't get to spend the quality one on one time with her like I used to. I try so hard to make some time each day for this, but it never feels like enough. Hopefully one day I'll get used to this.

A few more things about Cece and then I want to write about my little dolly, Maggie. Cece has changed so much in these last few months. She is getting so much better at amusing herself, she goes to bed easier, and she even falls asleep without me in the room which I never expected or planned to happen. She has been sleeping most of the night herself (although we had a couple of weeks set back when she had a cold) and we made her a little bed in our room so if she wants to come in during the night she can sleep in her "special bed." I feel bad that she can't just come in our bed but Maggie is usually sleeping in there and I don't think it's safe. Cece seems to be okay with it. Riley also likes to keep Cece's special bed warm when she's not using it. We have a new rule since the time change that she can't talk or play until 6am. So if she's up a little before 6 she can come in our bed and snuggle quietly and she watches the clock and waits for it to say 6, then she usually asks to watch TV or play a game on daddy's kindle fire. That buys us an extra half an hour with our early bird.

Now Maggie! My sweet little angel is changing so much. When she was almost three months old she had an amazing turn around and became a much happier baby. She's definitely still a fussy little baby (no surprise being the child of me and Pete) but nothing like before. She is getting very interested in her surroundings. She will give you a huge smile back when you smile at her. She does an adorable little laugh which she did for my mum a couple of weeks ago. She grabs at things and can sort of shove a toy in her mouth, it's not very graceful though. She rolled from her tummy to her back around 3 1/2 months and now seems to not be interested in that and is working on rolling from her back to her tummy. She is not a huge fan of sleeping and it can take some major effort for me to get her to nap. Usually I put her in the ergo or maya wrap and get her to sleep, then sneak her into the swing if I want to get a longer nap out of her. She wakes up every couple of hours overnight but she just nurses for a few minutes and goes right back to sleep, so it's not too bad. It makes my life much easier that I just sleep with her. I try to have her start out the night in her co-sleeper and if I could stay awake long enough, I'd like to start trying to move her back to that each time. But I'm not stressing over it. All I did during Cece's first year was stress over her sleep and that didn't get me anywhere!

Here are some pictures of my girls:

This first one is Cece at 7.5 months and Maggie at 3.5 months, both wearing the same PJs (different pattern obviously). It looks like they are around the same size and Cece was already sitting up, crawling and pulling up to standing. Maggie is definitely not taking after her sister in the size department! They remind me so much of each other.

Bundled up girls! (Cece was going outside with granny to look for the North Pole in the sky here)

 

 

My little monkey child, watching TV with her spatula, and getting ready for bed with daddy:


Cece loves baking with me! This is us making some dairy/soy/egg free pumpkin muffins :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Maggie Diet

This isn't the happiest memory for me but something I'd like to remember in case anyone else is going through a similar issue in the future. When Maggie was about a month old, I discovered that she was intolerant to dairy in my diet. I had stopped eating dairy 11 days before in hope of helping her reflux and when I gave up and started it again, she immediately had blood in her stool which is a symptom of dairy intolerance. I immediately stopped and after a week, I was still seeing blood. So I stopped eating soy and miraculously the next day it was completely gone. So I wasn't thrilled but I knew I could do it and started making an extra trip to Whole Foods and spending more time cooking and baking, and was eating pretty well. But she kept having flare ups where blood would appear again and I was journaling and analyzing everything I was eating and going completely crazy. I had decided that I also couldn't eat chocolate, eggs, beef, and citrus fruits as well. Then after a few days when it wouldn't go away, I decided to go on a "total elimination diet" where I would eat very few foods and cut out all allergens and then slowly add back foods to find out what she was okay with. I started with eating oatmeal, grapes, peaches, pears, avocado, carrots, rice, turkey and squash. After a few days the blood was completely gone so I tried some coconut creamer in my coffee and she had an instant reaction. A few days later she was completely fine again and I even had her stool tested by the doctor to confirm. So add coconut to the list! At this point I was advised to start eating new foods every 3-4 days to make sure she didn't react but that most fruits and veggies were probably okay. I'm still reluctant to try berries, citrus, tomatoes and bananas but have started eating apples, spinach, chicken, and most recently bacon. So far everything is okay. The one allergen I've added back is wheat, and she seems to be okay still. I really have my fingers crossed for wheat to be okay. I feel like I can handle dairy, soy, and a few others, but wheat on top of that would be VERY hard. The next few things on the list are tomatoes, corn, chocolate, peanuts, and other tree nuts. I will wait a while before trying egg or beef again, and even longer before attempting soy and dairy (since some babies will outgrow the issue before 1 yr).

Maggie seems to be happier the last few days and at first I was extremely relieved. But I'm continuing to second guess myself and worry about her fussiness, but I think I might also just have a fussy baby. She also just switched reflux medications. We also had her tongue tie clipped last week which was horribly scary for me and I had constant anxiety for a week before seeing an ear, nose and throat doctor who relieved my anxiety and did it at the same appointment while I held her, and it took literally one second. This should help her nurse more effectively and could help her tummy issues and fussiness as well. We also saw an osteopath who I will try going back to and have made some changes to the way she nurses. We have a follow up appointment with the GI doctor next week and I'm hoping I leave there feeling positive that we are starting to put this behind us. It has been very worrisome. I just want my sweet little baby to be happy. And she is SOOO happy during some of her awake/alert periods lately and there is nothing that could make me feel better. I just hope to see even more smiles from her soon. For now I wear her in a carrier most of the day and she snoozes peacefully and even takes a couple of long naps in her swing. In the afternoon she will sometimes nap in her swing for 2-3 hours. At night she starts off sleeping in her rock n play and then usually sleeps with me during the second half of the night. So it's definitely exhausting, but I think I'm keeping her happy as much as possible, and that's all that really matters.

Here are some happy pictures. These moments make me feel so happy and relieved.

 

 

Maggie Meredith Two Months Old

Maggie is two months old today. It makes me a little bit sad because I feel like she's officially not a newborn baby any more, and I don't know where the time has gone. Everything is so hectic with the second baby, it just goes too fast. I want to sit and hold her and enjoy every second but it feels like there isn't much time for that. I am totally in love with this sweet little baby girl, more than I ever could have imagined. I kept wondering, how could I possibly handle loving another child when I love Cece so much, but somehow she was born and I instantly had twice as much love.

It's funny because everyone says second babies are easier and I kept saying that I didn't think any child that Pete and I had could be easy. And I was right! The poor little munchkin has had some issues. She has reflux and also has an intolerance to dairy, soy and eggs in my diet since I'm breastfeeding. So I'm sure these things contribute to her fussiness. She is just starting to have some

 

happy awake periods where she can be put down and watch what's going on. She gives the biggest, sweetest smiles, especially whenever she sees her big sister, Cece. She loves to kick her legs around too which also reminds me of Cece. She only likes to be held in a very specific way, up looking over my shoulder, and she will make it very clear that she's unhappy if you hold her any other way. I remember Cece liking that same position at her age. I also wear her in a baby carrier a lot and she really likes that and usually goes right to sleep.

Just wanted to give a quick update and a photo of my sweet little baby girl at two months. Hopefully I'll get better about keeping up on these posts!

 

And double baby-wearing! (how I got Cece to nap two days in a row!!)

 

 

Stop Making Me Look Bad

This morning I had an 8am doctor appointment scheduled for Maggie. I knew this would be bad, especially with Pete out of town so I was alone with the girls overnight. I tried to prepare everything last night and even took a very quick shower and dressed myself in clothes that would be presentable enough to leave the house in the morning with. By some miracle, I got us up, fed, dressed and out of the house within an hour of waking up (after a very bad night with Cece waking up 3x and Maggie up a couple of other times). I was feeling pretty good. It started going wrong when I pulled up to what I thought was the doctor's office and I had gone to the totally wrong place. Maggie had just started crying so I got out of the car to calm her down and then headed to the correct place. We arrived 15 or 20 minutes late but my children were clean and dressed and I felt proud that I even managed that.

 

Then I walk up to check in and the woman in front of me ruins it all for me. She has perfectly done hair, makeup, nails, a beautiful black dress that I wish I could be fashionable enough to wear, a LV purse and what look like LV high heeled black shoes. And her son, around 4, was wearing a button down shirt which looked IRONED, tucked into khaki shorts with a BELT. They just looked so perfect that I wanted to vomit. And here I was feeling like I had it all together. But whatever.

 

Then we get in the office after dragging Cece away from the giant screen TV playing Curious George in the waiting room and they seem a little irritated about how late and slow we are. We get Maggie undressed and weighed and the doctor is about to come in when Cece says she has to pee. So I put naked Maggie in her stroller and fly out of the room with Cece in tow to find a bathroom. We made it to the toilet with a partial accident. So we get back in the room where the dr is waiting and I have to apologize and tell him that I need to change Cece's wet pants and undies. He waits patiently and we have our appointment. Finally we are ready to leave and we had been in there so long that I figured Cece was hungry and bought her some healthy-ish looking chips out of the vending machine. She tastes one and goes back to the machine to demand something else. This was a perfect end to a perfect early morning doctor appointment.

 

Little Chatterbox

Cece has become such a little chatterbox. She's 2 years and 3 months now. She seriously never stops talking. I have to record some of my favorite things that she says that I find hilarious. I know they'll probably just seem normal after a while, but right now they are just too cute:

• Here you go, mamma (or daddy, Riley, etc)
• Be right back (usually to Riley)
• Just one more
• Last one (this means we are far from the last one)
• Mermaid make Cece all better (something with the Little Mermaid on it has to kiss her, like a pullup, undies, a sticker, or the actual Little Mermaid DVD works too)
• Mr. Yiyey pants (referring to her favorite doggy brother)
• Mr Muddy Paws (this is Twig, who somehow manages to get muddy paw prints all over our house regardless of how much mud is outside)
• Cece self (when she doesn't want help with something)
• No fank you (this is often said while screaming so she's not quite as polite as she may sound)
• Cece pick up (usually following daddy around on the weekends with her hands up for him to pick her up)

Lately when I take Cece to appointments with me (my pre-natal appts, vet appts, her pediatrician, etc) she literally talks the entire time so I can't get a word in to whoever we are meeting with. It's exhausting. We met with a vet who did surgery on Riley's eye the other day and she said to me when I asked her an important question, "I'm sorry, I'm not going to talk over her" (which I actually appreciate, I don't think it's polite to just talk over children because they are children) but there was nothing I could do to make her stop. I was rummaging through my purse trying to find something that might interest her and gave her a sheet of stickers which she covered herself in while chatting away the whole time. She also demands to be heard and you usually have to repeat back to her EXACTLY what she said or she will keep repeating it until you do so. So while I'm all for acknowledging her and encouraging her communication and making her feel heard, sometimes I do NEED to speak and I really did a this moment, so it was a bit frustrating that the vet wouldn't talk to me! We managed to talk "around" her and survived the appointment :)

At my prenatal appointments, Cece is a very enthusiastic big sister and wants to help listen to the baby's heartbeat (boom boom as she calls it) but I have very rarely been able to speak during my appointments and usually walk out exhausted. Luckily her auntie watched her for my last appointment and I finally got to ask a bunch of questions that I've been worrying about.

I'm sure she is going to keep her little sister entertained 24/7 which will be great!

Toddler Problems

We have the same major dilemma every day: getting dressed. Lately the main problem is the selection of undies. This morning I told Cece she needed to change her undies because she was wearing the ones from yesterday. So she followed me into her room to pick. Her favorite thing right now is Little Mermaid. The dirty underwear had Little Mermaid, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty on them. I handed her what are usually her favorite pair with Little Mermaid all over them. These were no good. So then I gave her ones that were almost identical to yesterday's except with Little Mermaid, Snow White and Rapunzel (and she can't tell the difference between Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty, nor could I, until further inspection this morning). This threw her over the edge because there was no Belle, just Snow White, so she threw herself on the floor and cried for a while.

I gave her a minute to see if she'd calm down and pick a pair but she didn't so I told her that I understood she was upset because she really wanted Belle on her undies and asked if she wanted to wear two pairs. She eventually calmed down and we settled on just B=elle. Then I left and laid on my bed feeling exhausted. A minute later she walked in happily wearing a different pair of undies (the Mermaid ones). So I got back up so we could finish getting her dressed. The shirt was no problem but then I handed her a pair of shorts to which she responded "no shorts, just pants", so I opened her drawer and handed her a pair of pants (technically they were jeggings) to which I got "no jeans, just pants." So I put a pair of leggings (regular pants) on the ground and walked out and back to my bed, and she came in a minute later wearing the pants. Finally dressed, 30 minutes later...

Here is one of the decisions in action from another day: