Sibling Love

I just wanted to publish a few pictures of A holding K. I never ask her if she wants to hold him - I let her ask me. She's been asking more frequently the past couple of weeks, which makes me happy. Jealousy is still something she's experiencing on a daily basis, so it makes me happy when she says to me,"A- hold baby K- now, please?" :) These pictures are just too precious to keep to myself :)

Holding baby brother's paci in :)

This just cracks me up

<3

Love his smile!

She was being so gentle with him, and he was
just sporting the biggest smile :)

Making Me Laugh

There are few people who can make me laugh like A can. Seriously, such a funny little human being. I have no idea where she gets this outrageously funny personality, but we're never bored at our house! Here are some of the funny things she's done and said over the past few days.

My mother recently sent over a box of cookie cutters after cleaning out her kitchen. Being incredibly busy with a fussy baby and a house that looked like it had been hit by Sandy, I hadn't had time to go through them yet... but A found time. They're now her new favorite things to play with. The cutest thing? She calls them "cookie dutters." :)

K has had some serious issues with colic or acid reflux recently, which means we spend a lot of time burping him so as to keep him from spitting up as much (for the record, it's not working.) Now, whenever I'm holing him, A-bug walks up and starts patting him on the back saying, "Burp, Ky-Ky! Burp!" She even tries to burp her stuffed Abby and Elmo. So far, no luck, but she's not giving up anytime soon. I also love when she sees he's awake and says, "you're awake, baby boy!" Our little imitator....

As her vocabulary grows, A starts saying complete sentences. My favorite thing ever is when she sits next to K's bouncy seat where he chills out during the day, and just strikes up a conversation with him. "Hey, baby Ky-Ky! How doin'? Get good sleeps? I lub you!" It's adorable. This morning at breakfast, after I gave her her usual blueberry yogurt, she says, "Mmmm, I luuuuub blueberries, mama. Do you?" and then proceeded to take a massive bite of blueberry yogurt lol. She just cracks me up.

The other day when I was nursing K, I noticed something on his head. When I started rubbing it, I noticed it was dried yogurt from A had kissed him after breakfast and gotten yogurt on his head. It all makes both my heart and my face smile. I love my kiddos, and I love the ever entertaining dialogue that goes on in our house. I can't wait until K joins the conversation... if he ever gets the time to get a word in ;)

One Month... Already?!

Today, my baby boy is 1 month old. Already. Crazy talk. This past month, I have been reminded of what extreme sleep deprivation is all about, how much newborn spit up and how much money I will be saving by nursing this baby instead of using formula. I've also learned for the first time what it's like to really cuddle with a baby... A-bug was never really into that. I've learned that Gripe Water really does work for some kids, just not A. I have come to appreciate nap time on a much higher level than ever before. I have gained a whole other skill level when it comes to multi-tasking. I have eaten more leftovers than food prepared that day (and thank you VERY MUCH to everyone who was a part of bring food to my fridge.)

I have also learned that it is indeed possible to love your second child as much as your first, and that your heart doesn't run out of room. I have watched some of the most adorable moments happen between A and K, and I'll always treasure those nightly kisses she gives him. I have been reminded of how wonderful a feeling it is to watch your new baby carefully studying your face and cooing at you. And there's never so much cuteness as when a newborn yawns and stretches out that teeny-tiny neck, scrunches up his little wrinkly face and momentarily turns himself into ET :) 

Here is some of the adorable-ness that's gone on in our household in the past month :)

Getting kisses from his big sister :)

All dressed up for his first trip to Grandma and Papa's :)

4 generations! Plus Uncle Mike :) 

Chilling outside during the October Indian Summer

I'll never get over those dimples

Sacked out in his Flannel Hoody - just like daddy :)

Piled up in all the blankets :)

I just love this little face :)

Such big eyes :)

Settling in with Baby K

I have to admit, I have it relatively easy when it comes to settling in with a new baby. My wonderful mother has been keeping A-bug on and off since K was born, or has been staying at our house. J also took the entire week right after he was born off from work, so I had a TON of help the first week. Even this week, since A has been with her Mimi and K sleeps constantly, things haven't been bad. Tomorrow will be my first full day with both of them and just me. 2 against 1. We'll see how it goes. 

But even with all the help in the world, there are adjustments that any household has to make when a new baby comes along. We also had lots of little things to finish up after we got home from the hospital, since we weren't expecting our little man to come along for another couple of weeks. So J finished putting up his shelves, we finished unpacking his clothes, discovered we had no where near enough diapers for this little pooping machine, and bought some more warm sleepers. A was always such a hot baby that we never put her in fleece until it was the dead of winter. K gets cold much easier than she did, so we have to get him more warm clothes than we had realized. 

So far, he's been a much easier baby than A-bug was. Long-time readers may or may not remember the long-term battle we had with her severe acid reflux. She had a hard time relaxing, was a terrible eater, and couldn't ever calm herself down enough to sleep well. We mostly lost our sanity and knew that we couldn't handle something like that again. Fortunately, this little man is just an eating, sleeping and pooping machine. I kid you not, that's all he does. And he does all 3 frequently. He rarely cries, and only occasionally fusses when he's hungry. The only difficulty we've had so far is that his days and nights seem to be mixed up, especially the hours of midnight till 2-3am. None of us are getting much sleep during those hours. He has no issues sleeping all day long, however, and we're working hard to train him that light time = awake time, and vice versa. He is getting better, but I'm still looking forward to going to bed before 2am sometime in the near future. 

As I wrote in the previous post, A is just crazy about him. She loves kissing the top of his head and patting his hands. She's still confused as to why he doesn't talk back to her, but I think she'll get the point eventually. So far, her shrieks, squeals and cries haven't bothered him in the least - he can sleep right through them all. She's a little more wary of his fusses and cries, however. It makes  her very nervous when he cries, and sometimes she'll join in if the fussing goes on for an extended period of time. She also loves riding in the car with him because she can see his face, and he's a captive audience to her chatting and singing. 

Here are a couple more shots of life at home, Week 2 with Mr. K. 

All dressed up to go to Grandma's for the first time!

Sleeping...

more sleeping....

sleeping again....

Aria loving his "leetle lips" lol

Smiling in his sleep... check out those dimples :)

Hanging out with daddy

Great-papa Wardell, daddy and baby K

Wardell great-grandparents meeting their first Wardell GGson 

Little Miss A Meets Mr. K

As many of my readers know, there's only been one thing that has caused me great anxiety over the past couple months of my pregnancy, and that is how A is going to react to having K around. Getting used to a bump on mommy's belly is much different than getting used to a new baby brother. At least, in my experience, that's been the case. I remember when my baby brother was born - I was not a happy customer.  And I didn't want that to be the case with A and K. I recently had several friends have their second child, and I was loving all the loving sibling pictures popping up on Facebook of the big brother or sister giving sweet kisses to the new baby. That's what I wanted.

K was born on Sunday morning, and A was coming by to meet him after going to church with her grandparents. All day, I was wondering if she was going to know who he was and how she was going to react. Thus, I could not have been more thrilled when she walked into the room, pointed to the little baby bundle sitting on my lap and squealed "baby Ky-Ky!" After running around and giving everyone else there hugs and kisses, she crawled right up into my lap to explore what this new baby looked like. She very gingerly patted his head, saying, "Nice baby. Good baby." And then, a moment I will never forget that still brings tears to my eyes; she leaned over, kissed his sleepy head and whispered, "lub you, baby Ky-Ky. Night-night."

A few days later, we were letting her touch him for the first time other than the occasional pat on the head. She was gingerly running her little toddler fingers over his mostly nonexistent eyebrows, chubby little cheeks and perfect little mouth. With each facial feature, she said "eyes, cheeks, 'leetle mouf'" etc. But when she got to his nose, she reached out, pinched it and said "BEEP BEEP!" and giggled. I laughed so hard; K was not so much impressed with getting his nose BEEP'ed. We gently informed her between giggles that baby Ky-Ky was not quite old enough to get his nose BEEP'ed because it was a "big girl" thing, and he needed to get a little bit older. She hasn't done it again since, but judging by the look on her face when she's talking to him, she is definitely thinking about it. I'm sure it's only the first of many times she'll annoy him and thus, entertain us to no end.

Now, every time she walks in the door, wakes up from a nap or just feels like making her presence known, she announces, "Mommy, Daddy - I here! Hi, baby Ky-Ky!" At night, when she's giving everyone kisses, she won't go to her room till she's kissed his little head and said, "Night-night, baby Ky-ky. I lub you." Sometimes she'll end with "see dweems" (sweet dreams) or "be good." She never ceases to amaze me with her cuteness and sweetness. I'm sure all this sibling love won't last forever, but I'm certainly enjoying how this has been going so far. I can't wait to see all the new things she's going to teach him :)

TA-DA! He's here! :)

"Hi, bebe! Hi!"

First ever family photo of all 4 of us :)