Thank Goodness for Coldplay!

Michael discovered that Keira loves Coldplay - like really really loves Coldplay. When she's fussy we'll put her Coldplay cd on (that's right, she's got her own cd because she loves it that much) and walk around with her and her body relaxes, her eyes go half shut and her mouth opens just a little bit. It's pretty funny. But, if another song comes on she snaps back awake and starts yelling again. Last night she was sitting in her little lounger while we were eating dinner and a song by the Goo Goo Dolls came on and Michael said to her 'You should like this Keira, it's just like Coldplay!' and she said 'MAAAHH!' which I think is baby for 'What do you know Dad? These guys are COMPLETELY different than Coldplay!'


She looks so sweet when she's sleeping. Aidan has been sharing this blanket that Michael's mom made for Aidan when he was born. It's really nice and warm

This week we got a gift card for Please Mum from Michael's aunt, so Aidan and I picked out this cute little outfit. The zipper pull has little rhinestones and each pocket on the front has a rhinestone on the corner. She looks like a little track star in it

This picture makes me laugh - a sign of things to come?

Yesterday morning Keira was very smiley and happy while I was changing her diaper

I keep trying to get a picture of her smiling but I'm always too late. She is smiling more and she's also started to make little happy noises as well which is so cute.

Aidan loves sitting with Keira in the rocking chair. She looks like a little doll beside him.

I've been told that colic passes by about 3 months and I'm really hoping her tummy troubles go away as well. I really wish there was more I could do for her, especially when I can hear her tummy making noises or see her crying so hard from all the gas she's got. This is my latest solution: I warmed up this rice pack a little so it was warm but not too hot and then I propped her up on her side so the rice pack warmed her tummy, put Coldplay on for her, covered her with a blanket and left her to nap. The doctors and health link nurses keep saying that her gas and tummy troubles aren't related to her herniated belly button, but I don't know that I believe them. Her belly button protrusion is now the size of a cherry tomato and if you press it, it feels like there is air either trapped in there or just in there because it makes a tiny little noise. Hopefully that resolves itself as well - and sooner rather than later!

Bigfoot

I think I am raising a Bigfoot. Over the summer Aidan mainly wore sandals and his slip on shoes but the odd time he had to wear tie up shoes I noticed they were getting a little small. We were in Wal-Mart the other day and it's been cool lately so we went to try shoes on him. Last year he was a 10 or 11 and this year his feet are a size 12. By themselves the shoes look like they should fit a 7 or 8 year old but when he wears them they don't look that huge. I was putting them away and wondered how much longer it would be until his feet are the same size as mine and it turns out, not too long!

My shoe is the one on the left just in case you were wondering :D

Cars

These things always seem to happen so fast. Michael will say 'I think we should buy a house' or 'I think we should get new cars' and then within a week, it happens. We had already been planning on selling the Focus this summer and getting me a car so that Michael could have the Sebring, but then he started thinking about trading the Sebring in and getting his dream car, a Chrysler 300. He did some calling to Edmonton dealerships to see what kind of a deal and financing he could get and of course got a deal he couldn't refuse, so we're both getting different cars.

Yesterday I sold the Focus and today we are buying a car for me - another Focus :) I thought briefly about getting a minivan because 2 kids and all their stuff take up so much room but they're so big and I really hate them, so I thought an acceptable compromise would be a station wagon - and we found one here in town for a good price. I told Michael he should be glad he married a mennonite because I was able to sell our Focus for a little above market value and buy the other Focus for a little below market value.

Michael's out right now just getting a certified check and picking up papers to register the car and then we get to pick it up tonight! He has to drive down to Edmonton on Monday to pick up his car and he's very excited about that :) I'm excited about the new-to-me car but what I'm most happy about is that it will be all mine. When we had the Sebring and Focus, Michael hated the Focus and we shared the Sebring, so it was his stereo in there, all his music, the seat would always be too far back when he drove it last and too far forward when I drove it last - so I'm excited about not having to share anymore!

Fishing for Smiles

Last night while we were having dinner Michael was holding Keira and making her smile and I was trying (unsucessfully) to get a picture of it.

I have about 4 pictures that are identical to this, immediately after she smiled - so frustrating!

I guess that's kind of a smile, though more of just a big wide open mouth

Getting closer to a smile...

I think this one just looks really funny.

Michael's really good at getting smiles out of Keira - and was better at getting smiles out of Aidan at this age too. He's also very good at burping which is why we call him the Burpmaster. I'm horrible at burping so I usually feed her and then if Michael's around I pass her to him to be burped.

Portraits

I got a call this morning from Wal-Mart saying that the stroller we ordered had arrived! Very exciting! While I was there I thought I would check to see if the pictures were also back and they were - I think they turned out really really well!

The picture with Aidan and Keira we had to try a couple times before we got a good one because she just wanted to sleep and suck on her soother. The one with all three of them we also tried a whole bunch of times - yanking the soother out at the last minute - but in the end went with the first shot. Keira is 9 days old in these pictures.

As soon as we got home I started putting the stroller together - Keira was kind enough to keep sleeping until I got it mostly all put together. I hadn't realized how big it was going to be, but I guess to fit 2 kids it has to be. I'm going to have to do a little organizing out in the shed because we've got the bike, bike trailer, little stroller and now this stroller all kind of hanging around near the door and there's no room to walk! I'm so thankful we have a shed with enough room to keep all this stuff though!

Also, a big congratulations to Matt and Teresa who just had a little baby boy on Monday! He is so adorable! It's too bad we don't live closer or Marek and Keira could be buddies - sometimes I wonder why we live up here. Babies are such a blessing - especially healthy ones - it's good to hear everything went well for you guys!!

Bathtime and Big Brother time

My mom made this really cute duck towel (complete with squeaker in the beak) when I was pregnant with Aidan. He used it for quite awhile and now Keira gets to use it.



This morning Aidan asked to hold Keira and since he's never asked that before, and was sitting very carefully in the rocking chair, I handed her to him. That didn't last very long so then I put her down beside him and went to go get the camera because they looked so cute.

Here he's trying to hug her

This is what he does all the time - waves at her and says 'Hi Kei-wa!' or 'Hi Kei-wa Belle!' and then he thinks its funny if Michael or I make her wave and say hi back.

Checking each other out

He's really so sweet to her, I'm so thankful for that!!

Say cheese!

We all had another nap this afternoon and they looked so sweet lying there sleeping

This is one of the cutest onesies she has - it has little fairies on it.

Today in church I was sitting behind a family who had just had twins on Monday. When they were born they were each a little over 6 pounds and they were only 5 days old - they were tiny! 2 little girls, named Aimee and Kailee - one wore white and one wore pink so that they could tell them apart. Then there's Keira one row behind them and one lady says to me (after looking at the twins) 'How old is she? 2, 3 months?'

Sleep

It's definitely something I've been craving lately! It's amazing how you go from sleeping 12 hours before the baby to maybe 7 afterwards and manage to cope. Every couple days or so I take a nap and sometimes when Aidan needs one too I let him sleep in my bed which he thinks is a big treat. It also softens the blow of having to have a nap.

This morning Michael came back from work and walked in the bedroom and Aidan was sleeping on his side and I was cuddling Keira on my side. 6:30am is just too early to get up!

Yesterday Keira had 2 naps in her swing - the rocking definitely helped her calm down and sleep for which I was thankful. She's not too bad - she could have colic and that would be waaay worse, but I can't handle the yelling for very long.

This is Keira in her crib, sleeping on her Boppy. I put her down on it the first night we were home from the hospital and I've just kind of kept using it ever since without really thinking about it. She seems to like being a little propped up rather than flat on her back, and anything that encourages sleep is fine by me!

I took Keira out for a walk on the trails today in her Snugli. It went pretty good, but we walked longer and were gone longer than I had anticipated. I thought I'd go out for maybe 20 minutes or so but took a different turn thinking it would lead somewhere it didn't. We finally made it back after 40 minutes and I collapsed on the couch with some water and sugar free freezies to cool off. Hopefully that stroller shows up soon! The snugli works well but is kind of bouncy for her when I try to walk fast and I really don't want her to wake up and demand to be fed out in the middle of wherever.

3 Weeks

Today Keira is 3 weeks old - it seems like such a long long time ago that I was pregnant - much longer than just 3 weeks! Things are going pretty well, but Keira has been very fussy. The first week she was very happy, but the past 2 weeks we've noticed she has become quite a bit more unhappy - with what, we're not sure. The only good thing about lots of crying is that she tires herself out and goes back to sleep :)

Thanks to Rachel for getting this cute little outfit - I love it! I didn't think it would fit so soon, but we do have a monster child! I wish it was a little warmer out so that she could wear it more often.

I had just finished changing her diaper after feeding her and then I changed her into this and by the time I had propped her up and gotten the camera she had fallen asleep! She was awake 2 minutes before...silly baby.

Michael took these pictures yesterday while she was awake and not crying last night. Here she looks like she's gesturing to get her point across.

Look at that huge belly!

She's really alert here - got those eyes open as far as they'll go!

Me and Keira

It's so funny how intently she looks at me sometimes. She's starting to smile more, and smile at me sometimes when I talk to her or look at her or tickle her cheek. She hasn't started to talk at all (other than crying or yelling). One day when I was sitting on the bed trying to burp her I was patting her back hard because she just wasn't burping and she turned her head up to look at me, stuck her bottom lip out and went 'Maaah!' and then turned around again. She probably didn't know what she was doing, but it was pretty funny.

Aidan's got daycamp this week again and then he has no more scheduled activities. I'm going to have to get on the phone and arrange some playdates for him. Last night was Brooklynn's birthday party and he had a blast. It was pretty late, went from 7-9:30 pm which meant we got him home and in bed a little after 10. They met at Muskoseepi park and went mini-golfing and Aidan even got a hole in one! Brooklynn was so excited to see him (and Aidan to see her) they gave each other hugs and held hands. Of course I forgot the camera, but it was pretty cute. I'm having a little bit of a hard time balancing both kids because so much of my time is taken up with Keira, after I'm done with her I just want to sit down and relax or sleep! It looks like this babysitting thing is going to work out with that lady, so then he'll have a little buddy over for a couple hours 4 days a week and I'm sure that will help both of us. We still have to meet her and her kids, but it sounds like everything else will work out. It's kind of cool actually, she scaled back her hours, but the rate she's willing to pay will work out to a little bit more than I was willing to go for per month so I'm really happy! Hopefully her children aren't wild and crazy!

Finally!

I'm not sure what's up with uploading pictures because I had to upload these one at a time. Maybe something's wrong with our computer. Anyways, here they are:

I got Aidan these rollerblades a few months ago and we just never got around to actually using them. While my mom was here I roped her into taking Aidan rollerblading - which he loved

This is Aidan's friend Shaun's sister Ashley. She came to Keira's baby shower and held Keira as much as she could.

Me and Keira. When I bought the little top she's wearing I couldn't figure out why the tag said 12 months when it was about the same size as another dress I had that said newborn. Then someone pointed out to me that it's probably a 12 month shirt and I felt kind of silly. But I still think it makes a pretty cute dress for her now.

While my mom was here Aidan was registered for daycamp and she very kindly ferried him back and forth every day in the bike trailer. He loved riding in it - except when a fly got in and then he had a major fit!

The very first day of daycamp I drove him so that my mom could see where it was. He sure looks grown up with his little backpack on!

Keira hanging out in her lounger

My mom and Keira. Keira really looks like Michael here

Sacked out in her cradle. I was really excited to get it, but I hardly use it - okay, I've used it maybe twice which I feel bad about.

Given Keira's reaction to her first bath in the hospital, I was all geared up for a fight to get her clean along with lots of yelling, but she seemed to really enjoy her bath at home. I got this baby bath tub from a friend and it's just perfect. I don't think I had one with Aidan. The water doesn't come up very far so she might have been just a little cold but other than that she had a great time which I was very happy about.

Keira was so fussy today, it was very frustrating. When she got up around 5 to eat I had a really bad headache that was still there when I got up in the morning. Sometimes it feels like she times her crying attacks for when I'm trying to get dinner, or lunch or breakfast or just sit down and relax. I was so exhausted I promised Aidan an ice cream when we went out later if he would stay in his room and play nicely while I had a sleep. He thought that was a good deal and it worked out well, I felt a lot better after getting a bit more sleep. Hopefully Keira can sleep a little longer between feedings at night soon because I don't think I'll be able to do that every day.

I had to go out to 2 or 3 places today but again, it ended up taking 3 hours! Every time I go out with both kids it seems like it's a marathon shopping adventure. Poor Aidan is exhausted at the end from walking around and I'm not that far behind him. We're getting this great stroller - I ordered it today from Walmart and it will take 7-10 business days to come in - and it has a place for Aidan to stand or sit at the back behind the seat.

It's called the Fisher Price Stand n' Ride Duo Stroller and both Aidan and I are very very excited for it to arrive! Hopefully I'll be able to actually get a bit of a workout when I take the kids out for a walk and then we can go a little further which will be great. I'm sure Keira would be excited too, if she knew what was going on :)