Three Months of Oliver!

Mr. Serious

Oliver's first dip in the pool!

Mr. Oliver is three months old today!  He is still growing, growing, growing out of his clothes.  I suspect he'll be in 9 month clothes within about a month or two.  He could probably wear them now, but I don't want to get rid of his 6 month clothes yet.  He has started sucking on his hands a lot.  I'm not sure if it's just because he found them or because he's beginning the teething process.  I'm hoping it's the former.  I woke up one morning, turned on the video monitor and saw him rolling on his side in his swaddle.  Just rolling back and forth but not completely over yet.  I think he's close, but since he hates tummy time so much I'm guessing he's not too keen to roll over to his stomach.  He's still doing a fantastic job sleeping at night: asleep around 9pm, sleeps until 6am or later, nurses and then will often snuggle and sleep with me until 9am!  I'm going to miss that morning routine when Zoë's done with daycare.  He doesn't do as well with naps and is quite the cat napper, sleeping about a half an hour many times throughout the day.  Sometimes he surprises me, though, and will treat me with an hour or even two in the afternoon!

Hanging out in front of the mirror with Daddy.

He's obsessed with the TV and appears to watch it every time it's on.  I'll admit sometimes I put him in front of it while I make his bottle or prepare lunch for Zoë just to make sure he's content.  Ahhhh, second child.

Playgroup with Mama

Oliver and I have been attending the baby group at VMC again like I did with Zoë and I'll say I love being around all of the (relatively quiet, compared to a bunch of 2 year olds) babies again.  It's so fun to see how much they've all grown already in the three months we've been going.

My two monkeys.

Zoë is continuing to astound us with her learning and growing.  She is doing MUCH better with using the toilet and we have way fewer accidents than even a few weeks ago.  She's even been telling us with enough to time to RUN to the bathroom when she needs to go.  A couple of weeks ago we were at Southcenter in the Container Store and she said she had to go (after saying NO! when asked about four times in four different easy to get to the bathroom locations, of course) and I literally grabbed her and started running without a word, leaving Chris and Oliver behind us in the store.  We RAN to the Sears where I knew the location of the bathroom all the while I'm singing "hold it, hold it, hold it" to Zoë.  She made it!  And we came back to the Container Store to find Chris and Oliver on their way out since Chris was SURE I was going to come back covered in pee.  Ahhhh, parenthood.

We went to see Daniel Tiger at the Woodland Park Zoo and
she wanted nothing to do with him after standing in line for over an hour.
Typical. 

Her sleeping has been great the last couple of weeks with few nighttime marathons of "I'm waking up now".  We're going to have a campout with two of her little girlfriends in the backyard in a few weeks.  Tent, outdoor movie, s'mores and all!  That should be quite an adventure.

Pool time!

On our way to the pool!

Early morning snuggles.

Reading with Daddy.

She has been exercising her (non) right to yell NO! at either one of us when she doesn't want to do something, more often to Chris than me, which really, really fries him.  The screaming that ensues after being told YES!  is epic.  Absolutely epic.  But, overall, these over-the-top tantrums are really not too often or long.  Surely she'll grow out of them soon, right?  :)

Just plain sassy.

As we introduce her to new things that we think are going to be super, super exciting, she continues to disappoint us with either how not-interested she is in the event/activity or how she actually is scared of it.  Chris and I remember fondly one of his company BBQs a few summers ago where we watched a two year old enjoy her first stick of cotton candy.  Seriously, this little girl was covered in red, sticky sugar and she enjoyed every moment of it with the best look of glee pasted on her face.  We could. not. wait to introduce cotton candy to Zoë.  So, on the Fourth when we walked down to the Des Moines Marina, we were ready to let her try some.  We found a stand, made her walk all the way back to our blanket before we opened the bag and let her try it (on camera of course).  She took two bites, said, "I no like it", and asked for fruit instead.  FRUIT!  Really?!

Mowing the lawn with Dad.  I love Chris' face in this picture.

Other than that we had a great time on the Fourth of July with good friends and lots of fun.  Zoë tried her first sparkler (I told Chris he was lucky we were around lots of people because I wasn't ready to let her near one).  Oliver slept through most of the fireworks thanks to his new ear protection.  We made it home by 11:30 from the fireworks show, and the late bedtime didn't destroy her too much.

Trying out his ear protection before the fireworks.

Our family on the Fourth.

Zoë's first sparkler.

Chris' safety lecture before Zoë's first sparkler.

My two sparklers.

We've had a couple of summer BBQs so far and have enjoyed hanging out with our friends in our backyard.  We're so lucky to have such a fun yard to host in and have lots of fun things for kids to do.  I feel pretty thankful that they'll come hang out with us!

Milestones

My medal!

Zoë has become so charming.  She talks our ear off at home, at dinner, in the car, everywhere!  She loves to sing the "Hi My Name is Zoë" song from Sesame Street...but it ends up just being "I am Zoë!  I am Zoë!  I am Zoë!" over and over and over again.  She has become a gymnastics superstar and last week they had a end of season "Big Show!" to show of the skills the kids learned all season.  They had an adorable medal ceremony at the end of class and called each kid up to give it to them.  I'm not a huge proponent of the "every kid gets a trophy" mentality but geez, I ate it up.  :)

Zoë and her teacher, Miss Erin

The "Big Show"!

Perfect.

Watching Disney movies together when Zoë was sick.

Forward facing girl

We turned her carseat around in the car to face forward because the seatbelt was digging into her legs.  I cried.  After she came back from gymnastics class with Chris I asked her all about it like I always do and then a few minutes later, totally unsolicited she said, "How's your day, mommy?"  And I cried.  She's growing up so fast and becoming a real person!  She understands the nuances of language more and more every day and every once and a while she says something and Chris and I will look at each other and go, "did she just say__________?"

She has become oh-so-affectionate and loves to give hugs and kisses.  She usually starts with a kiss and then when she leans over to give you a hug will always whisper, "hug" as she does it.  It's adorable.

Panera.  Yum!

Oliver is still smiling and smiling and smiling.  We're working on tummy time (he's not a fan), taking naps in his crib, and he giggled for the first time on Tuesday!  He LOVES to be on the changing table and will coo and giggle for 10-15 minutes there.  He is also starting to roll onto his side to look at objects...I'm hoping rolling over isn't much further behind.

So chill.

Practicing tummy time

He went in for his two month doctor's appointment this week and weighed 15 pounds 4 ounces and is 25 inches in length.  That's above the 97th percentile for both!  It is absolutely crazy to have a baby this big!  His length is like a typical four and a half month old and his weight is like a typical five month old.  No wonder my arm feels like falling off when I carry him in his carseat around.  His doctor says he looks good, strong, and healthy.  He had a fussy day after his shots, but nothing too out of the ordinary and that a few doses of infant tylenol couldn't fix.

Zoë feeding her baby.  :)

My favorite guy on Father's Day.

Two Months of Oliver!

Mr. Oliver is 2 months old today!  He is a champion eater (every 1.5 hours during the daytime, seriously) and sleeper (between 7-8 hours every night, and then will go back to sleep after his 5:30am feeding for another two-three hours!).  He is growing like a weed and is just over the 14 lb mark and about 25 inches long.  That means he's gained 4 lbs and 5 inches in two months.  Crazy!  I'm not able to keep up with him with breast milk, so he's getting a supplemented formula bottle or two a day to keep him happy.  :)

Six month clothes already!

He is SUPER easy and truly only cries when he's hungry or tired (or, in the case of this past weekend, when it's 85 freakin' degrees in our house at 6pm).  He is enjoying his tubby time and we're working on tummy time.  He usually only makes it a couple of minutes before he starts to cry, but I feel like his neck is super strong.  He seems like he's pretty solid on holding up his own head now.  He's got the most charming smile and he's pretty quick to do it for me.  I can't wait to hear what his giggle sounds like!  He's just started cooing and babbling which sound amazing.

The whole Seaman clan.

I cleaned out his drawer yesterday of all 3 month clothes.  He's officially in his 6 month clothes.  Yikes!  I didn't even have time to really get attached to a whole bunch of 3 month clothes by the time he grew out of them.  My goodness.  His official two month doctor's appointment is in another week and a half, we'll have to see how big he is then.

Loves her Fona.

Zoë's new favorite app on the iPad,:Endless ABC.
She's OBSESSED with it!

Zoë is still proving to be a great big sister and is actually pretty helpful where Oliver is concerned.  She can hold the bottle for him, can grab a burp rag if it's out of reach, and loves to bounce and talk to him.  We ventured to the spray park on Monday and Zoë wouldn't go in the water unless Lesley held her.  So disappointing to me that she is so timid with such fun things.  She'll grow into it, I suppose, but I want her to run and splash NOW!

Komodo Dragon, Dedo!

She's learning and growing like crazy.  Her storytelling abilities are so entertaining and the things she remembers and can parrot back to us are impressive.  She still loves our trips to the Zoo (we went today with Dedo) and it's super fun to plan something fun to do every day whether it's a trip to a park or baking cookies in the afternoon.

Typical lunch, and I finally got Zoë to take a selfie with me.

Settling In

"I hode Owva?"

Seven weeks in and we've got quite a routine going.  It involves a lot of the same things over, and over, and over again, no surprise.  Our sweet toddler is still loving on her brother and insists on giving hugs and kisses all the time (And it must be both, god forbid I take him away before she's gotten her hug in.  Screaming usually ensues if I try that!).

We have kept busy on the days that Zoë is home all day with us.  It's involved several trips to the zoo (and a couple planned for the near future, too), a park trip here and there, and we even attended the Renton School District rally last week and I gained superhero status for bringing two kids with me.  :)

Such a tentative slider.
She slowed herself down with her shoes and held
onto the side the entire time.

First serious knee scrape on my watch.
She is the klutziest child and
trips over her feet constantly.

Mr. Smiley!

Uncle Connor's home from Alaska and Zoë sure loves him!  The summer will be fun with another playmate like him to play with.  :)  Chris and I are just getting back to our date nights,  and we have only gotten away for a few hours at a time, but they are so appreciated and fun to spend time (drinking) together!  We are counting down the days until our cruise-just the two of us-and looking forward to a whole week of eating, drinking, and sleeping in without being responsible for little people.  89 days, by the way.  

My new favorite picture of Zoë and Dedo looking at the cows near their house.

Fund Public Schools!

Happy One Month, Oliver!

One month!

Oliver is one month old today!  And, I'll admit, it felt like the slowest month ever.  He is gaining weight like a champ, probably hit the 12 pound mark by now (last Wednesday he was at 11 pounds 12 ounces), and some of his 3 month clothes are getting to be a bit tight (seriously!).

With his proud big sister.

We think he's incredibly strong for 4 weeks as he loves to hold his head up and isn't as floppy as we would have imagined.  He is also sleeping incredibly well, usually only waking up once or twice in the middle of the night after going to sleep around 8-9pm.  We're still working on him sleeping in his crib, so far he's in bed with us with our pillows pushed halfway off the bed to make sure he's safe.  :)  Last night he slept in his crib the entire night for the first time, but was up much more often than if he were in our bed.  He usually takes one nap in his crib each day and I'm beginning to be able to predict his eat, play and sleep schedule.  He's a pretty darn easy baby so far, taking after his older sister.

I swear he's been smiling at me!

Speaking of his older sister, she is still continuing to be the best big sister ever.  She has mastered the "shhshing" technique, is *mostly* gentle when trying to put his pacifier back into his mouth, and loves to bring him and show him toys when he is hanging out on his play mat.

I left the room and came back to find her snuggled right up next to him.

Zoë ate an ENTIRE Costco hotdog last week.  By herself.

Frankly, she has been much better behaved and patient with him than she has been with Chris or myself.  She has now gone four days potty accident free, too, which has been wonderful.  She definitely has been regressing in that area since Oliver was born.  I don't think it's because of him, necessarily, I think it's because it's harder with two kids to anticipate when she needs to go (and if I'm nursing Oliver, for example, I can't rush her to the toilet if she needs to go).

Her pet name for Fiona (Fowo) has morphed into "Fona", which made me tear up because it just reminds me that she's growing up.  :(  OK, maybe I'm a little hormonal, maybe, and tend to to tear up at the smallest of things.

Cuddling before the storm.

Last week was our first week of half time daycare, so Zoë was with us Tuesday afternoon and all day Thursday and Friday.  Have I mentioned HOW thankful we are for Lesley lately?  Tuesday afternoon happened to be my worst fear come true with Zoë home with us in the afternoon.  She got really sick, wanted to be held the entire afternoon, which, of course, conflicted with Oliver's need to be held the entire time and be fed, and changed and, everything.  I sent Chris the picture below with the caption "Help me" to which he responded "Want me to bring home a blizzard?" and you know it was bad because I just said, "no, I need you home as soon as possible".

"Help Me"

Thursday and Friday were much better, though.  Thursday was a banner day...I mean EVERYTHING went perfectly.  We got out the door and on time to our appointment at the hospital, Zoë didn't melt down ONCE during the day, AND, everybody took a nap at the same time (which meant MOM also napped).  It was really quite magical.  If every day will be like that one this job will be a cinch.  ;)

Evidence that I got both kids out of the house on time and looking good for our morning appointment.

Friday we went to the zoo which was fun, but extremely exhausting.  Zoë was infatuated with the animals and fed a giraffe (the first time, then she got scared on the second go-round and wouldn't do it).  We have a membership to Woodland Park now, so I'm glad that we can go for just a few hours each time (I made it two hours on Friday before I was overwhelmed and had to haul everyone home) without feeling guilty about wasting money on such a short time period.  Trying to nurse Oliver out in public is really, really not fun.  He is SO huge (I never got to practice on a 7 pound baby, let's be honest) and fighting with layers of fabric and the heat just makes me frazzled and grumpy.  I'm hoping this magical feeling of breastfeeding my child kicks in sooner rather than later because I'm going to be honest, I HATE it right now.

Zoë and Dave the giraffe.

All in all, it's been a good month!  Here are the pictures of Oliver's finished room, too. :)