Captured: One Smile

While I was sleeping the other day Michael caught some smiles with the camera. I should have just let him try to catch her smiling from the beginning - he's better at that sort of thing than me, as evidenced here.

You can see her super gross disgusting herniated belly button here. I generally try to ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist, but Michael always opens up her sleeper because he doesn't want it to be constricted or something. It's supposed to go away by the time she's a toddler or if not, then by the time she's 5. So it looks like I'm stuck with looking at it for at least a year - I know I should be lucky that I'm not dealing with something worse, but it's so gross!

I keep taking pictures of her sleeping...I'm not sure why. She does sleep alot which I like! I think she sleeps more than Aidan because when Aidan was 6 weeks we moved and I remember he was on a 2 nap a day schedule. Probably 2 two hour naps, but he would just be awake a lot. I remember not knowing what to do with him and propping him up on my knees while I read and him just sitting there looking around. I think he was a much quieter baby than Keira. He's making up for it now though. He was playing outside the other day and running around yelling 'Come out tonight! Come out tonight!' at the top of his voice. He had been listening to a Backyardigans song earlier in the day that went 'Cowgirls, cowboys won't you come out tonight, come out tonight' in the chorus.

Anyways, speaking of quiet babies, Keira is asleep and so I am going to go take advantage of that!

My Car!

So this is my car! Michael and I are both very excited not to have to share cars anymore! I'm glad I like it so much because after seeing his new 300 I really don't want to drive it. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty spiffy car! But there are way too many little features and everything is digital - I'm having enough 'fun' figuring out where everything is in my basic Focus! Just figuring out which way to turn or twist the little wand thing to get the front or back wiper working or washer spritzing was throwing me for a loop. I've got it all figured out now though (3 days later).


I love all the extra room in the back! Today I picked up an exersaucer from freecycle and it just barely fit back there! Thank goodness I had all that room. Michael was going to replace the hockey Canada plate with a BC Lions one and I said he shouldn't because it was my car which earned me a look of death, but I see he hasn't replaced it...yet :)

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!!