Jingle Bells

Here's Laurel singing with her preschool for the parents on the last day before Christmas break. Such a sweet sound, brought tears to my eyes they were so cute!:)

The holiday season

The holidays are definitely in full swing around here! We put up our xmas tree right after thanksgiving. Forgot to mention that around the actual time. Been so focused on baby and functioning our daily life that, yes, we did put things up on time! We used our first ever artificial tree, just a small 4 footer. Comes pre-lit and everything, no dropped needles. Nice! I remember being disappointed when our trees in my childhood home went to artificial, must later - once i was out of college i think!. But as an adult, i really appreciate the fake tree:). Laurel picked out a Sleeping Beauty ornament at the disney store and she sits atop our tree this year. She was very enthusiastic about decorating. She has been that way for each holiday this fall She hung ornament on top of ornament, crowding all of the bottom branches, but she had a lot of fun doing it:). She's also helped me start on some wrapping. Audrey's room isn't really occupied yet, so it's turned into xmas prep central! Wrap, ribbons, etc cover the floor. Laurel is in charge of the tape and picking out packaging labels for each gift. She also picks out the paper for each person.
We also got our elf on the shelf right after thanksgiving as well. After much encouragement, and rejecting names like "chair" and "tv", Laurel named him Beepbo. He keeps watch over her in various locations each day and brings a tiny gift in her advent calendar each morning. Laurel is somewhat into it. Most days she doesn't remember until I point him out. Maybe next year she'll be more excited for his "visit".
We had a run in with Santa at the mall, just a quick lap sit. Last year she wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole and this year she's very excited. She was still reluctant to sit and wouldn't talk with him, too bashful. But she did sit on his lap! We'll bring her back again right before xmas to have a better photo opp.
Things continue to be busy at Copper Willow, printing holiday cards and getting items ready for 2011 wholesale. I'm definitely feeling behind. Planning for the holiday event last weekend and having Audrey come along has put me far behind. But again, I feel lucky that she's an easy baby. She comes to work and sleeps in the carrier. She has a good schedule of about 1.5 hours of wakefulness and then she is ready to eat again and jump back into the carrier. So when things get really tight on time, I know she is going to be easy to deal with. Eventually she will be bigger and it won't be so easy, but we'll figure out a way to make things work then. Audrey's hair is starting to grow back in already. She was pretty much bald on top and a nice fuzz is growing in fast. Unfortunately, at the same time, her skin has broken out in a bad case of baby acne. Pretty much all over her face and patchy across her scalp. I keep her baths mild so that there's no irritation, but she definitely has sensitive skin. She will get rashy reacting to heat as well. Poor baby. But it doesn't seem to bother her, so we'll just wait it out. She's already growing as well, most of her newborn things are starting to be too short on her. Wow, time flies!

holiday pictures

Copper Willow hosted a holiday shopping event this past weekend. Whew that was a lot of work for me! I'm exhausted. But it was a fun weekend. We had a silhouette artist in who cut silhouettes of both Laurel and Audrey. What a treat:). I also had Kara, our resident photographer at the studio, take pics of the girls for our holiday card. Here's a nice shot. Audrey had to come spend the weekend with me at the event. She's not taking to the bottle too well and she is quite attached to me, crying really hard for anyone else. If she doesn't have a good morning nap, she has a rocky day.

1 month!

We've made it to the one month mark:). This I remember to be full of wakefulness and struggle with sleep for Laurel, so I am hoping to have a change with Audrey. So far, Audrey is definitely waking up more, but as long as we have a good morning nap, she does ok for the rest of the day with naps. With no pacifier, she likes to nurse to sleep, then we prop up on the chest for a burp and go to sleep. Sometimes she wretches around for a while but when she's out, she's out, slack jawed and all. Audrey is also losing her hair, big time:). All of the top of her head is balding and fast! On our way home from Thanksgiving, she twisted and turned so much that her hair jumped ship. She'll be growing a baby mullet before we know it. I don't know how quickly the hair will grow back in but it's quickly receding. Audrey is also starting to coo and every now and then make some smiles. Some of the smiles are wide mouthed and some are a genuine ear to ear grin. But there's no predicting it, so no pics of the smiles yet. Her coos come out sounding like "hi", which is fun, we're having very early conversations. I say hi, she said hi back, lol. We're on a good night time routine, again helped by good sleep during the day. We start our bedtime around 6:30 with nursing and rocking, sometimes a bath prior. Audrey's skin is sensitive and so is her body temperature, so she doesn't like bath at all. I'd hate to put her through it every night the way she screams:(. Some nights we don't have to go in at all and some nights we have to rock her repeatedly to get her to stay down. But she definitely knows her bedtime and starts getting craking between 5:30 and 6 pm. She's still waking twice at night, sometimes with a feeding around 11, sometimes not. Occasionally she's gassy in the morning, but not consistently and so a normal morning has her waking around 7. If she's been gassy, we're both in and out of sleep all morning long.

Laurel has gotten so much better with the baby crying. That's a huge relief. If we're in the car, she will be nervous about it and point out that she's crying, but there's not much I can do about it! Audrey does cry pretty much every car ride, so I really don't look forward to running errands and try to stay close to home. At least for now until Audrey gets better with her car seat. Laurel is always on spit patrol. She will point out a spit up very quickly and run to get a towel and rag off Audrey's face. Laurel is getting good at occupying herself when she has to. While I put Audrey down for bed, Laurel plays games on her iphone and watches shows on tv. She's become very independent, gung ho to do everything herself because she's a big sister now. She can hoist herself up onto the potty and wipe all by herself. I tried to hoist her up the other day and she complained about doing it herself, got down, and got back up on her own. Laurel is a little better at helping herself to her toys and playing a bit by herself. She wants to look at Audrey all the time and asks if she's awake. She likes to squeeze her "cheekies" and kiss her on the head. Laurel continues to go to school and is doing very well. She's made some little friends and is really enjoying their company. It's helpful to me that she goes to school right around the corner from the shop. I can just walk to pick her up. Audrey comes to the shop with me pretty often right now because she sleeps in her bjorn carrier and falls asleep. It's not the most convenient position, but i can press with her strapped to my front. Laurel is very sweet, she picks flowers for me on the walk from school:). Laurel is starting to draw with more recognizeable figures. She drew a huge circle with a circle inside and a tiny stem - the circle inside was the bite on an apple! She also can draw large circles with eyes, stick legs and arms and a string of hair. Laurel is able to put on her own clothes - after whatever battle takes place to choose an outfit! Most of the time she wants to wear dresses and I had to put away all of her summer ones so she wouldn't pick them from the closet to wear. She's picky about shoes still, but she's able to put some things on herself so it helps get out the door! Her conversation is more inquisitive, asking what things are, why things happen, where things are. She asked me when she would get boobies! I told her not until she was older, to which she replied - when I'm 4? She asked Grandma the other day where her Daddy was. Grandma replied that he was at work. Laurel said, Daddy loves to go to work? Grandma said, well, I'm not sure he loves it, but he likes it ok. All in all, she's becoming quite the independent free spirit - which also comes with some stubbornness. We've taken to bargaining on how many bites of food she has to eat before she's done, or what kind of clean up has to be accomplished before the next action of play. It's an interesting transition:).

Thanksgiving

I of course forgot my camera! My brain is missing lately:). Will add some photos later when i snatch them from someone else.

For Thanksgiving this year, we started out with a lazy day. Up in the morning to watch the parade - which Laurel was interested in for about 5 minutes, despite my enthusiasm! Oh well:). The day flew by and it was time to drive down to Christy and Mike's. They had our family as well as Mike's over, so it was a full house. They put on a very nice buffet dinner and we sat around and chatted for most of the evening. Laurel as usual was running a muck with Amber:). We were joking that the two of them will be trouble some day - quite the pair! Audrey was pretty good in the car on the ride down. I was anticipating lots of crying but she fell asleep. She doesn't like her car seat, just like Laurel as a baby. She slept a lot on me, which was good, she is getting much more aware and active now, which makes naps touch and go. The drive back was a headache though, there was an accident and the drive took 2 hours, rather than 45 mins. Oye! Audrey cried on and off on the drive back and she twists her head back and forth when she cries. I had a hat on her and i think all of the movement pulled out lots of the hair that was already thinning and falling out. Now she's balding on top:).

sisters!

Here's a cute shot of the sisters "playing". It's really just Audrey gazing at Laurel in awe and Laurel playing with Audrey's "cheekies". Laurel loves to see when Audrey is awake and her voice gets all high and squeaky when she talks to her. She tries to tickle Audrey and Audrey just watches her and stares. I can tell Laurel will be a source of entertainment down the road for sure:).

week 3

So far, 3 weeks with a new baby and a 3 year old has gone pretty well! We've managed ok with daddy away at work during the day. Of course it helps emensely that Grandma is around the corner and Aunt Meg is off from work for a short while. Both are over the assist whenever they are free and I'm ever so thanksful! Mostly to keep Laurel entertained. We're slow to get started in the morning and I don't want to her watch more tv than she has to. This week, we got out a little more than I expected to, and I even put in some time at the shop. Laurel had a Thanksgiving lunch at her preschool, though she didn't really eat any of the Thanksgiving fare. But it was still fun to see the kids and other parents gather for the holiday. Thursday, we met up with her class at the library for a story time in the meeting room. We ran a little late, doing my best to get out of the house on time just takes longer than usual! Laurel got her first library card and we checked out a couple of books to take home for naptime reading. Audrey has spent a lot of time in the baby bjorn, handed down by Leora. Much more comfortable across the back than the jeep carrier we used with Laurel. Audrey falls right to sleep in it, just like Laurel did. Again, something about being bound tight to Mommy's chest. She's been a good sleeper at night still and I'm going to get her on a night schedule soon. She is definitely looking to go to bed earlier, her tired cues kick in right around 6:30/7pm. So we'll be trying that to see if she goes down easily. I decided to get her thrush medication filled. She's had a white coating on her tongue that hasn't grown but hasn't gone away either. The doctor wasn't positive that's what it was, but gave me a prescription to take home just in case.
Audrey is starting to be more aware - she follows well, keeps her eyes very wide open. She likes to make a little "o" shape with her mouth and is trying out facial expression. She's fun to watch. She takes your face in very attentively and really watches how your face moves. She's not mimicking yet, but she's exploring her own face as well.
So far she's been pretty similar to Laurel. I think my one wish is that she'd take a pacifier. It's a love/hate object - when Laurel had it, it was a blessing to be able to put her to sleep with it...but then we were constantly running in and out of her room to pop it back in when it fell out:). Audrey wants nothing to do with it and instead likes to linger at the breast and that's definitely an asset Daddy doesn't have!