Butterfly House

I took the girls to our local garden's Butterfly House this morning.  Hadley started out with a little snooze in the car to build her energy for the big outing.

These big butterflys were more than willing to perch on the visitors.  Arden wanted nothing to do with it, but Hadley didn't seem to mind.

It sort of looks like a big hair bow!

Still there!

And proof that Arden went along and I exist - here's a group shot of us; butterfly still included!  One of the staff from the house went to grab her camera because it was so cute and offered to take one of all of us with my camera.  I'm still getting used to handing my DSLR to people - everyone's so accustomed to being able to preview the image on screen that going back to the eye piece requires explanation.

I have done some sewing (other than nautical flag banners!), but Arden has been reluctant to model my creation even though she says she likes it.  Maybe tomorrow...

Entering in the spring challenge at:

Eating and Sleeping

First Food

We introduced rice cereal on Saturday - sorry for the unedited cell phone pictures, but I haven't had a chance to download the ones from my DSLR.

... and a little video.  I thought she was going to be way more into eating than she was, but she kept thrusting her tongue out and pushing the food down her chin.  I figured out the next day that I can sort of lay it on her tongue when it's out and then most of it will go in and stay there.  Oh, another new adventure!

Hadley Marie: Five Months

Time marches relentessley on, and Hadley is now five months old!  I liked this photo of her because she sort of looks like she's posing.

I love the little kissy lips!  I think she's working on a tooth or something because she's started making this face a lot.

Hadley's still a super easy baby!  I keep realizing how lucky we are that she's sleeping so well - frankly anything is better than Arden, but Dave and I both still laugh when we put her into bed and she just goes right to sleep.  She had a few nights with some wakeups, but that seems to have been a growth spurt and she's back to normal now.  She's mostly been sleeping overnight in her crib, but since I like having her next to me in her cosleeper I've been pulling her in there after her dream feed a few nights lately.

We pulled the Jumparoo out of storage and she immediately went to town jumping and playing with the toys.  When we introduced Arden at about the same age we needed to put a pillow underneath and a couple of burp cloths around her to help her fit.  No props needed for miss Hadley - she reaches the floor no problem and isn't lost in the seat either.

Hanging out in her Bumbo seat.  We think it looks like she's holding a meeting or something.  She's sporting one of her head bands - I like them okay, but I don't put them on her very often.  Dave thinks head bands on babies are ridiculous but he puts up with them.  Love those cheekers!

Arden is still a super good big sister.  She calls her "baby Hadee".  When she kisses Hadley she says "I got some baby sugar!".

Awww... sisters!  Arden likes to hold Hadley, but only for a couple of minutes - then you better be ready because when she's done she pushes her off her pretty quickly.

Here's the five month collage - I can see she's filling out the little orange sweater and blue jeans a little better this month - in fact those jeans might not make it for 6 months!

Hadley Marie: Four Months

Time just keeps flying by with the craziness that is having two little girls in the house!  Hadley is four months old, and Arden will be turning three in a month!  We officially had to say goodbye to the yellow/green onesie, but now we get to see her in the cute orange sweater I had originally knit for Arden.

Hadley continues to be the World's Easiest Baby, or WEB for short.  She's still sleeping through the night, and for the last couple of weeks has been going down around 7 PM and staying asleep until around 6 AM with the exception of a dream feed around 10 or 11 PM.  She's still working on rolling over, having done so successfully once about three weeks ago.

I did a little photo shoot for Hadley just after three months.  I took them in her nursery and used a reflector to bounce the light coming in through a small window to the right.  I think they turned out pretty well, and I should be able to do even better next time after taking the DSLR photography class - I can shoot on manual now!  Previously I was mostly using the action or the aperture priority setting.

This one is my favorite - I love how it shows her little pointy chin and the alphabet wall art behind her without being distracting.  This is edited in Picnik.

... or maybe this one is my favorite - little chubby belly and chunky thighs!  This is edited in PhotoShop Elements with a free action from the Pioneer Woman called "seventies".

Hi there, cutie!

She spends a lot of her time with her hands clasped together in front of her.  If they're not there then she's trying to cram her thumb or her whole hand in her mouth - I'm trying my darndest to prevent having a thumb-sucker!  I want to be able to take pacifiers away when it's time.  She's got an awesome belly laugh and she smiles so big when I go to pick her up from daycare.  She still gets chatty in the evenings and we swear she's saying "hello" to us.  She's getting better with her hands and grabs onto to toys in her floor gym, or a toy on the Bumbo tray.  She also grabs a fist full of hair at every opportunity, something Arden is not too thrilled about!

I don't have a weight for her right now - not even an at-home one.  I forgot to do it over the weekend, and I work Monday-Wednesday and it's too hectic in the evenings to try to do it then.  We have our Dr. appointment on Thursday so I'll update her stats then.  I think she might be leveling out a bit, but I could be surprised!

Hadley Marie: Three Months

Hadley continues to be a super baby.  I posted on Facebook today that I feel like I've won the Mommy lottery.  In an unscientific at-home measurement, she weighs 15.6 lbs. and is 24.75" long.  This puts her in the 100th percentile for weight and 90th for length.  Go Chubba-Chunk!

She's been sleeping through the night for three weeks now.  And when I say sleeping through the night, I mean the entire nigh - she'll crash around 8 or 9 pm, then I'll do a dream feed around 10 or 11 pm and then she doesn't wake on her own until 7 or 8 am.  I usually wake her at 6 am to feed her and then put her back down while I get Arden up and around.  She just goes right back to sleep and we don't hear a peep from her until it's time to load her in the carseat.

She's super happy and smiley - showing off her two dimples pretty regularly.  In the evenings she turns into quite the little chatterbox, cooing and babbling away for at least half an hour.  She loves to have her diaper changed - laughing and smiling immediately when we lay her down.  I'm not sure if it's because we're paying her close attention or if she just really doesn't like to be wet.  She also gives a good belly laugh when I'm getting ready to feed her.  I'm not sure if I should take that personally - I guess boobs are funny!

A development that dearls indirectly with Miss Hadley is that I have caught up to her with my milk supply, and am building up a happy stockpile.  I'm even thinking I might have enough soon to consider donating some excess milk (gasp!  I never thought I'd have enough extra!!).  I need to do some research to determine if and where I'd want to donate.  I have a friend who donates hers locally and advocates for that, but there are also national organizations that accept and process breastmilk.  I'm pretty excited to be in a position to possibly help some babies.

I love putting this little monthly collage together.  Next month she'll be in a different outfit, cuz those pants aren't going to fit for much longer!  She's pretty much in 6-9 month sleepers, and I'm starting to phase in that size for daytime clothes as well.  She's also in the Medium gDiapers, which means that Arden and Hadley use the same sized inserts.  Arden still wears a diaper for sleeping even though she wears panties for daytime.

Hadley's 1st Day at Daycare

My maternity leave has ended, so Hadley started daycare on Monday.  Since we had kept Arden there to hold her place and to keep her attending preschool we were all pretty used to the routine for getting out the door in the morning.  I don't remember why Arden was upset, but check out that pouty lip!

The 2nd was a holiday for most businesses so it was pretty quiet.  Both Dave and I had decided to take the girls to daycare and use the day to get some projects accomplished - One Month To Win It for me and building a wall between our breakfast nook and the office for Hubby. 

She did fabulous!  I had to refrain from overselling her to the teachers because I didn't want it to backfire, but she's such a good baby.  Everyone said she was super easy - drank her bottles down no problem, burped right on cue, slept really well, etc.  She's more excited and happy to have her diaper changed than any baby I've ever met.  Cracks me up!  Since there were so few kids there that day, Arden got to spend some time in the infant room with Hadley, which makes me feel happy that they both got to have a special day for Hadley's first day.

With Arden, Dave used a week of paternity leave and stayed with her the first week I returned to work.  This really helped us determine how she would react to bottle feeding for a whole day - she was a snacker and I didn't want to make the bottles too big and risk having them dump them out because they were out too long.  No worries like that with Hadley.

I work three days a week, so we sort of have the best of both worlds - the social interaction for the girls at daycare and some adult and intellectually challenging time for me, and then four days at home with my babies!