Tuesday, May 24, 2011

A-Ok


We took Mikaela to the cardiologist today. Everything checked out ok. She does have a murmur, but after an ekg and an echo ultrasound, the cardiologist was able to confirm that the murmur was innocent and most likely just loud blood flow working through Mikaeala's heart. She'll most likely outgrow it and it's nothing we need to be worried about. That's definitely a huge weight off of my shoulders. Mikaela, by the way, was a total champ. She didn't squirm or cry at all during all of the procedures, and we were in and out in lighting speed. The nurse and cardiologist all raved about what a good patient she was being. They had warned us ahead of time that the procedures could take a lot of time, almost an hour, because in order to get a good read, they'd need the baby to be still for 10 seconds at least, and since most babies are in there crying and squirming, it often is a big challenge. They asked us to bring a blanket, pacifiers, bottles of milk, and anything that might soothe her. Turns out we didn't need anything except the blanket to lay down on the patient table. Can't say it enough how easy this kid makes it sometimes.

Monday, May 23, 2011

A night with the Wei's

Before getting ready for bed, Naomi and Austin were watching Car's. This is what I overheard

Naomi: "Here Daddy"
Austin: "what's this...Ewwwww Naomi, don't just give me your boogers!!!"
Naomi: "It's RICE daddy"

35 Months

That's right. Naomi is 1 month away from being THREE. How did time go by so fast? We were looking at pictures from while I was pregnant with Mikaela, it's unbeilable how much Naomi has grown up since becoming a big sister. She's such a girl now as opposed to being a baby. She started pre-school full time this month and is doing so well. She's done really well with potty training, and is only wearing diapers now when she goes to bed at night. She's doing really well with recognizing her letters, and can spell her name, mikaela's, and is starting to string together words by slowly spelling out letters. She is still obsessed with ballet and dancing and loves putting on "shows" for her audience, which is usually Mikaela and myself.
She's also embracing the fact that she can voice or shall we say, yell her opinion. She's VERY opinionated, and we're constantly working with her to help her realize that she is not always going to get her way. She also gets easily frustrated, and is extremely dramatic..(no she doesn't get this from me, I promise). I do think that my going back to work has affected her. Several times in the past couple of days, she's called me at work, having just woken up to find that I wasn't there. Hearing her voice full of tears begging me to stay at home is pretty much the most difficult thing I have to face each day. She does get upset that I'm not home all the time, and by the time I pick her up from daycare, she's often so tired and cranky, a major meltdown and temper tantrum is basically inevitable.
She's starting to overcome her shy stage and warms up to people much quicker now. Once she is comfortable with you, she won't stop talking to you...she's actually been "shushed" at school during her dance class. She apparently was over excited about showing off some of the new ballet moves she had created (after watching swan lake on youtube).
She's obsessed with dresses still, and refuses to wear pants and shorts. She loves trying on shoes, whether they're mine, or shoes at a store. All in all she's a true girly girl.





Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Head Support = Awesome

Rain Rain Go Away

We've had some nasty weather the past couple of days and it's kept us cooped up indoors. Yesterday when it let up a bit, my parents went out to do a little yard work, so I bundled Naomi up and let her run around in the yard. She was excited to get dressed up in her new rainboots, which are still way too big and kept coming off, and to use her umbrella.


















I've also tried to come up with some activities to keep Naomi entertained without having her play with the iPad all day. Yesterday she spent hours mixing colors in this ice cube tray. I got the idea off of ohdeeoh.















Supposedly the weather clears up tomorrow...just in time for me to go back to work. =) I'm not bitter.

Monday, May 16, 2011

4 Months



Mikaela turned four months on Saturday. She's possibly the easiest baby ever. She is completely happy and laid back and gives out smiles and laughs so easily. The only times she really gets fussy are when she's tired, hungry or needs to be changed. All pretty reasonable circumstances if you ask me.
She's pretty much mastered rolling over from her back to her belly. She's flipped back onto her back a couple of times, but still struggles. She has great head support and is so much easier to carry around now. When you pick her up, she feels sturdy. Really sturdy. Not at all fragile and newborn-ish. Sigh. They grow up so fast. She's so easy and lovable it's almost enough to convince me that having a third would be do-able. But I'm not falling for that trick.
She sleeps really well at night, and can go anywhere from 10-12 hrs at night. On the few nights where she does wake up in the middle of the night, and I do nurse her, I've found that she'll end up sleeping in until 9am or later. So I'm thinking that the next time she wakes up, I might just try to get her to sleep without nursing her since she doesn't really need to eat in the middle of the night anymore...we'll see.
Week one, or at least the first 3 days of work, were ok. My mom and dad are the ideal babysitters. She has learned to take the bottle with a lot less fight now, and hopefully won't have to be re-trained after the past 4 days of not having a bottle. (I'm doing a phase back to work, so last week and this coming week I'll only work 3 days a week).
Today I took her for her 4 mth checkup, and after having to wait for over an hour, and then waiting even longer to actually be seen by the doctor and get her shots, it ended up being a 2 hr + doctor's appointment. Thankfully Mikaela is so chill and didn't freak out too much other than for her shots. She's growing nicely, still a petite girl, but so was Naomi...and um, without heels, I suppose I'm not that tall either. Her skin is so dry and rashy, the doctor gave us some sample lotions to try and also recommend that I cut dairy from my diet to see if that's the problem. The doctor was impressed with how well Mikaela is sleeping at night, and was also impressed by her head support and how well she pushed herself up for tummy time. She did notice a murmur and is having us get checked out by a cardiologist. Hopefully it's nothing serious, but we'll get checked out early next week to rule out any complications.
Here are her stats:
Weight: 12 lbs (10%)
Height: 23 inches (5%)
Head: 41.2cm (77%)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Naomi-isms

Naomi: "Mommy, I love so much because you're so pretty in your pajama's"

Friday, May 13, 2011

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Day 2

Day 2 at work is almost harder than Day 1. Missing the girls has totally sunk in. We're trying a new commute to get in and out of the city, mainly to try and get me home a little earier in the evening. It's a lot more expensive, but yesterday I got home at 5:35 instead of 6:15. It is more stressful though since I have to drive through Hoboken during rush hour. We'll see.
I had this overwhelming feeling of anxiety last night before I fell asleep. Not that work was hard or stressful yesterday. But thinking about juggling work, taking care of the girls, having so little time with each of them at night..it had me wishing I could just throw the towel in and say, this working thing isn't for me. Of course we don't have that option, and I don't know if I'd be happy staying at home all the time. I am incredibly thankful to have my parents here helping us though. It made the day pass by a little more quickly to have my mom call me with updates on how Mikaela was doing throughout the day. And coming home to a home cooked meal and my mom waiting outside for me and Naomi, with Mikaela on her lap, is definitely the best way to be greeted.
Mikaela did well yesterday by the way. She fought the bottle initially, but by the end of the day she was taking it without a fuss. She definitely wore my mom out though! Hopefully today goes a little smoother for them.



Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Back to work

I'm back to work today. It's hard. I put the girls to bed last night, tearfully...obviously, and left before either of them were up this morning. The goal of the day is to make it through without crying.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day. I had a great weekend which started off with an early Mother's Day breakfast in bed on Saturday, bbq with family and friends on Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning I was greeted with a bunch of gifts from the girls and Austin, followed by church, a ton of time spent outdoors in amazing weather, and a 3 course meal cooked by Austin to wrap up the weekend. All in all a girl couldn't ask for anything more.



Friday, May 6, 2011

Teething

Mikaela is teething. She's super drooly and a little fussier than normal. And I can see the very very tip of a tooth in her front bottom gums.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Naomi's School Pictures

Here are Naomi's pictures. Not bad considering it was her first day back at daycare after our Florida vacation =)




Tuesday, May 3, 2011

What Naomi Did At Work

I left Naomi alone with my work computer for a second. This is what I came back to find...








Needless to say, she had fun.

Monday, May 2, 2011

A Week of Milestones
















We've had a busy week. Our girls hit so many milestones this week, I'd normally post each one separately, but lets face it, I still haven't posted pics from my girls get away to Paris from back in October. So the likelihood of me making a separate post for each seems unlikely at this point.

So here they are.

First up, is a big one. Potty training. After months of regression and disinterest in the potty, on Sunday morning a little over a week ago, Naomi declared she'd like to wear her undies. We obliged, and we've been accident free ever since. She tells us when she has to go, sometimes goes on her own, and she'll go #1 and #2 (although #2 definitely takes some convincing and a lot of pep talks). With the exception of when we go out and nap/night time, she is in underwear and doing amazingly well.

On Saturday, April 30th, which happens to be Austin and my 6th wedding anniversary, Mikaela rolled over from her back to her stomach. She has been trying to roll over for over a month now, so it was so exciting to finally watch her accomplish this. Naomi was especially happy for her, cheering and jumping up and down for her sister's success.


















Also on Saturday for the first time, Mikaela slept for 10.5 hours. Soo-Jin babysat for us again so Austin and I could go out to an anniversary dinner; she must have worn the girls out cause they both slept in the next morning and we ended up missing church completely.

Last night, Mikaela for the first time slept through the night. She went to bed at her usually 7:30/8pm, and didn't wake up until 8:30am this morning. Hopefully this wasn't just a fluke and she'll keep up the good nights of sleep. Just in time for me to go back to work.

A couple of other fun "firsts". Naomi and Mikaela went to their first bar yesterday. We went to Jake's in Montclair's to watch a friend's kid perform in a "School of Rock" concert. It was really loud and we were worried about the girls' ears, but they both did fine, and there were a ton of other kids there...although Mikaela was definitely the youngest.

As I mentioned, our "friend" Soo-Jin babysat for us on Saturday, and put Naomi in her first Yankee's t-shirt. Needless to say, Austin wasn't happy.






















Not really a first, but Naomi went to the dentist today and did amazingly well. She was friendly to both the dentist and the receptionist. She didn't cry when they cleaned or examined her teeth. She's grown 4 teeth since her last visit, and has perfect teeth with no issues. Everyone was impressed that Naomi brushes 2x a day and flosses every night =)

Naomi also went to Austin's new office for the first time on Thursday's "bring your kid to work day". She was a little shy, but did really well and wasn't rude or mean to any of the new faces she met. So relieved that we're slowly moving out of her
"mean to new people" phase.