{Look How Much I've Grown!!!}

Today we had Zoe's 2 month check-up...we are just shy of her 2 month birthday!! I can't believe that she is already 8 weeks old today! Time is flying by!! She is finally growing more and more...every nurse or doctor that we talk to says how much bigger she looks than the last time they saw her!! It's funny...to me, she is finally looking like a newborn baby!! She looks so fat to us compared to how she was and we are proud of her for gaining so much weight!! =)

Today she weighted 9 lb 6 oz (25th percent) and was 22 1/4 in long (50th percent)! I am so excited that we are no longer in the 3rd and 10th percentiles that she was in last visit!! Woohoo!! And even more impressive...she has gained 3 lb in one month!!

Everything checked out with her and the doctor said she was a healthy little girl and that we are finally on the right track with her weight gain and eating!! She is doing everything developmentally that she should be doing at this stage! She is starting to coo and smile here and there! She has the sweetest voice already! I think the best news of all is that the last 3 nights, she has slept ALL night THROUGH the night (from 9 or 10 pm until 6 or 7 am)!!! It has made for a great 3 nights...I am finally catching up on my sleep deprivation! We have tried something new with her formula and I think it is making her belly feel better which may be helping her sleep better!! Anyway...hopefully it continues this way! Don't they say that it takes 3 days to make or break a habit!! =) We'll see how tonight goes!!

The saddest part of the day was watching Zoe get her shots!! Poor girl got FIVE SHOTS in her tiny skinny legs that have no meat on them!! She cried so hard when the first one went in and they kept coming and coming and coming and she didn't know what to think! She couldn't stop crying and had the saddest, poutiest face when it was all over! I felt so bad for her afterwards and I just wanted to give her a sucker on our way out of the office! So I grabbed one to give to Ayden! And then on my way home (as she was still crying), I wished I could've taken her to get ice cream or to the store to pick out her favorite toy or to lunch to make her feel better!! Poor thing couldn't enjoy ANY of that!! So I went and picked up Ayden at my neighbors house and we went to lunch at McDonald's to celebrate Zoe being such a brave girl at the doctor!! I had to tell Ayden all about her appointment and how she got shots in her legs! He was so interested in every word I was telling him and had to check out her bandaids!! I'm sure we will be back at McDonald's in about a month doing the same thing after Ayden gets his 2 yr old shots!!

Oh and on a side note, I am loving one of Zoe's new toys! We never used a Bumbo seat with Ayden, but I wanted to try one with Zoe. I thought there was no way we could use it yet, but I saw it in her closet last night and decided to get it out and see if she fit! I couldn't believe that she could actually sit in it! She seemed so happy to be in there and to be able to look around and not just have to stare at the ceiling! I noticed that she especially loves to watch the dogs when she is sitting there on the floor and they are at her eye level! It's so funny!

And check out that double chin!!! Wow...what a porker! We need to get her on a diet! Ha!!

And Ayden also likes her being in the Bumbo seat! I think he thinks she's a big girl when she's in there and not such a baby! He has been going up and sitting right next to her when I put her in her seat! It's so cute! I think Bumbo's are one of the greatest inventions and I plan on putting her in it more and more! I know he looks evil in this picture...like he is going to bop her on the head with the bat he's holding! But luckily, he didn't!!

{Oh...how times change!!!}

I was thinking to myself today about something funny and thought I would "blog" about it! It's so funny to me how times change and how different my life is today than it was 5-10 years ago! Today is a BIG day in my books...well, not really TODAY, but 10 years ago, today would have been a HUGE day! I was searching on the internet this morning because I am looking for a 0-3 month swimsuit for Zoe for 4th of July (since she won't be big enough for the 3-6 month ones I got for her). I came across Nordstrom.com and found out that today was the 1st day of the Women's 1/2 yearly sale! I had to chuckle to myself when I saw this and think back a few years! There was a big chunk of time in my "pre married life" days that the Nordstrom 1/2 yearly sale was one of the highlights of my year!! Sad, isn't it?? I was such a big fan of these sales that I would call in sick to work and ditch my college classes on the 1st day of the sale to hit as many Nordstrom stores as I could (usually 4 or 5) in Southern California! This day would never have come without me knowing about it...my calendar would be marked months in advance so I wouldn't forget about the BiG SaLe day!! I would save up weeks and weeks of paychecks leading up to the sale and spend ALL my money on new clothes! Oh....those were the days!! =)

Now the reason that this is so humorous to me today is because I can't remember the last time I spent money on myself or went shopping for new clothes for ME!! Why when you have kids is it more fun to spend money on them and make sure that they are dressed cute!?!?!? I also think it's funny that the Nordstrom sale could've come and gone this year and I wouldn't even have noticed OR missed it!! In fact, instead of thinking about the sale today, I am thinking about how I'm going to fit a workout in since it's raining outside and too cold to walk, when I'm going to fit in time for a shower today (and hopefully it will be before 2:00 pm when I took a shower yesterday) and how I'm dreading the idea of taking these 2 kids out in the rain to run the errands that I need to run today! Ha...makes me laugh at how simple life was 10 years ago when all I had to worry about was "I hope I don't get caught for ditching class or calling in sick to work"!! However...I will be making a run to the store today!! But only to the grocery store to buy the things I really NEED...diapers, formula, milk, etc! I do miss going to the Nordstrom sales and all the money I had to spend on myself back in the day, but I would NEVER trade in the life that I have now with my two little loves that keep me on my toes all day! Being a mom is far better than all the material things in the world that I used to be able to afford!

Anyway, I'm glad I had that laugh for the day and the trip down memory lane! And now I am back to life...Ayden just spilled his bowl of Cheerios with milk all over the floor that I spent all day cleaning yesterday and Zoe is crying in her bouncer seat! Forget about the Nordstrom sale...it's time for reality! MoMmY to the ReScUe!!!!

{6 weeks old}

I can't believe that Zoe is already 6 weeks old today! Time goes by so fast and it feels like it was just yesterday that we were in the hospital waiting to bring her home! She has changed so much these past couple weeks! I took this pic of her in her carseat today and then found this one from when she was 2 days old...it's fun to compare and these look like completely different babies to me!!

She is really starting to gain weight and I love to see her FAT belly and the tiny little rolls that are forming on her thighs!! It's so cute! We went to the doc today and she weighed 8 lb 5 oz!! She is becoming such a good eater and is still sleeping so well! We can't complain at all about that! Last night was the first time that she slept all by herself in her crib in her room and I think she loved it!! She slept from midnight until 8:00 am!!

I'm not sure I slept as well as she did since I was up every few hours to check on her in her room! For the most part, she is just waking up once a night, but we are hoping for more nights like last night!!

I think for the most part, she is going to have a very mellow personality! She doesn't cry much at all...except for when she is hungry! Each day she is becoming a bigger and bigger fan of her bouncy seat, so that is nice that I can finally put her down to get some things done! She also started smiling a couple days ago which is the sweetest thing! So far, she has only smiled at me (which makes me so happy because Jeremiah was the only one that could get Ayden to smile for the longest time when he was a baby)...I can pretty much get her to smile whenever I want now! Hopefully I will get to catch that cute smile on the camera sometime soon!

Anyway, we are really enjoying life with our 2 little ones right now. Although life seems crazy and stressful at times having 2 babies, I know that this will only be a short time in our lives! Soon we will get to sit back and watch these 2 playing with each other and enjoying each others company (hopefully)!! In the meantime, we will continue reading our latest purchase from the bookstore...."Supernanny: How to Get the Best from Your Children"...to figure out how to manage a newborn and a very stubborn toddler!! =) Ha!!

{5 weeks old}

While we were in Cali, I went to visit my friend Carrie so Ayden could play with her little guy Logan. She is not a professional photographer, but she got a cool new camera and wanted to try it out on Zoe...I think she did a GREAT job!!

I love that she is ALMOST smiling in these pics...this is the closest we have gotten to smiling so far! =)

{home SWEET home!!}

It took me a few days to do the recap on our vacation, but I'm glad I can check that off of my to do list...makes scrapbooking so much easier when I stay up to date on my blog!! =) It's so good to be home...I am really loving my house right now! It's always nice to see family, but I am slowly learning that kids do better when they are in a regular routine! Maybe next time we travel, I will just expect to throw our routine out the window for a few days and then I won't stress so much! It was for sure nice to get away, but I'm glad to be back and get back to normal!

I just wanted to give a quick update on Zoe...she is getting so fat and chubby all of a sudden!! While we were in California, all of a sudden she was really interested in eating and finally started eating a ton!!! She has stuck with it and is eating almost 3 times as much as she was a few weeks ago!! We could see her getting fatter before our eyes, so we weighed her on Sunday and I was shocked to see that she had gained almost 2 lbs in 10 days!!! The last time we went to the doc, she was 6 lb 10 oz and 10 days later (on Sunday) she was a whopping 8 lb 4 oz!!! She is getting to be quite the cutie now and it's funny to me that she is almost up to Ayden's birth weight!! At least we have reached our goal of 7 lbs...now we can start pulling out all those cute outfits I have for her!!

{Birthdays, a Baptism and a Blessing}

Our next stop on our vacation was back to my brother's house in San Diego (we were there last weekend also). On Saturday, my nephew Cooper got baptized and his little brother Crew got blessed. It was a busy day, but I'm so glad that we were able to be there for such a special day in their family! Here are some pics from the baptism!

After the baptism, we went back to my brother's house for Crew's blessing and a yummy dinner catered by Macaroni Grill. Here are a couple pics at their house!

Ayden really loves his cousins and had so much fun playing with them!

On Sunday, we celebrated my Dad's and Cooper's birthdays. Cooper got a Wii for his birthday...I'm not sure who was more excited...Cooper or Jeremiah!!! Ayden had a blast singing the "Happy Birthday" song and helping Grandpa and Cooper blow out their candles!

{Fly a Kite!!}

Ayden has been really obsessed with kites lately. It seems like a lot of people fly kites in the park by our house and Ayden never misses one of them! When he is in the front yard playing, he will all of a sudden stop and say "kite"! Sure enough, someone is flying a kite in the park!! His grandma bought him an airplane kite and Ayden was SO excited!! We went to the park and his Daddy and Uncle Kirt spent some time putting the kite together...this wasn't just an "open the bag and fly the kite" kind of kite! This was the most high tech kite I have ever seen! Just as Ayden started to lose interest, the kite was finally ready to fly!!

He had so much fun chasing it around and holding on to fly it himself! I wish we had room to bring this kite home in our suitcase, but we didn't! Guess this is just going to be a thing that Ayden will look forward to doing at Grandma & Grandpa's house!

{Gone Fishin' at the Aquarium}

Our next stop was to Jeremiah's parent's house in Fullerton. On Thursday, we wanted to do something fun and touristy! It's so funny because when we lived here, I hated all the touristy places such as Disneyland...but now that we aren't Southern Cali residents, it's fun to be one of those nerdy tourists that takes pics everywhere they go!! Ha!! We ended up going to the Long Beach Aquarium because we knew Ayden would love seeing all the fish!! Jeremiah's mom went with us and we went to lunch at Islands before heading to the Aquarium!

We were right and Ayden LOVED the Aquarium!! He had so much fun looking at all the fish close up. His favorites were the sea lions! He laughed every time they would pop their heads above the water!

Ayden was pretty scared to stick his hands in and touch the fish, but with Grandma's help, he did it!! Not sure that he loved touching them...I think he definitely preferred just watching them!

One of Ayden's most favorite things of the whole day was feeding the birds! He would hold a cup of nectar and the birds would come right up and eat out of his hands! He was a little scared at first, but then wanted to feed them more and more!