Creative Thinking

This morning, despite better sleep than normal, I was having a really hard time getting out of bed. Brooklyn was wandering around my bedroom for awhile, crawling in and out of the bed and trying to stay entertained. After some time, she decided she was bored and it was time for all of us to go downstairs to watch Dora the Explorer. She asked me several times to get out of bed and go downstairs but I kept telling her I was too tired. So she decided to try a little trial and error approach.

She started walking down the stairs saying, "Come on Mommy! Come on! I'm waiting."
When I didn't come she changed her tactics, "Mommy, I have to go pee pee! Hurry! Hurry!" After that didn't work she got really creative! "Oh NO Mommy! The bad guys are coming! They're here mommy! Oh no! The bad guys are coming and they're gonna eat my BUTT!!!"

By now I was laughing pretty hard but was still comfortably stuffed under my blankets. Then I heard Brooklyn solemnly coming back up the stairs and thought she had given up. She walked into the room and said, "Mommy, pleeeeeease come downstairs." I told her I would come later but it was too cold in the house right now and I didn't want to get out of the blankets. She looked around pensively and then said, "Hmmmmmm...I KNOW! You need a bra! I'll get it!" She then rummaged through our laundry until she did, in fact, find a bra. She gave it to me and proudly proclaimed, "Now you're ALL better! Come on!"

Well how could I resist that! I finally got my cold and lazy self out of bed and now Brooklyn is happily enjoying an episode of Dora the Explorer while I type this post. Here's to never giving up! Brooklyn, you are truly an inspiration!

P.S. The picture above is of Brooklyn walking around in one of my sports bras that she found and put on (upside down) all by herself. After she put it on she kept telling me and Kevin that she was a beautiful butterfly! I love that girl!

Wrapping up the End of March!

March has been an incredibly fun and tiring month for our whole family. Adjusting to a new family member with little to no sleep at times has taken its toll on both Kevin and I, but we are frequently rewarded for our sacrifices by our two sweet little girls!


Brooklyn and Lily are getting along famously! Lily doesn't really have an opinion about anything and Brooklyn absolutely adores her "Baby Lily" (and thus has to be watched very carefully when they are together)! She loves to brush Lily's hair, rock her in her baby swing, kiss her all over, and pick her up...yeah, that one scares me a little!


The girls are now officially sharing a room. It's been hard because they are both exceptionally loud and dramatic children, so when one starts to cry... you better believe its going to wake up the other one! The good things is, no matter how little the amount of sleep they get is, they still wake up happy and sweet!

Every morning after Brooklyn wakes up, she crawls in bed with me and Lily (who usually joins me around 6:30am) and we sing songs together and then Brooklyn tells me she needs to talk to Baby Lily. She then folds her arms across Lily's chest and lays her head on them and proceeds to tell Lily about her bear, the pink giraffe that slept with her, the snakes that are hiding in her bed, etc. Its really quite a wonderful thing to watch and sometimes, very humorous as well!


One of Brooklyn's very favorite things to do, is help me get Lily dressed up. She really gets a kick out of getting "pretty" and I'm afraid poor Kevin is going to be severely overwhelmed with pink ribbons and frilly bows before too long!


This new obsession with bows and dress-up is partially to blame on Aunt Janna! She sent Brooklyn a whole package of bows and hair clips that she handmade and Brooklyn was ecstatic! She put every single one of them in her hair at once and wouldn't let me take them out until she went to bed that night!


But its not always pink frills and bows around our house. Kevin and the girls take the time to sit down and watch some good episodes of NCIS or 24 together every once in a while. Instead of the theme songs from Wonder Pets or Dora the Explorer, we get to enjoy an hour or two of gunshots and explosions...a fact that makes Kevin very happy but has unfortunately taught Brooklyn to tell us we are "killing" her every time we make her do something she doesn't like. (I don't know what Kevin and Lily are watching in this picture, but according to both of their faces, it is REALLY interesting!)


As for me, I can now say that I can operate as a stable and happy individual on less than 4
hours of sleep in a 24 hour time period. I have learned how to effectively get a 2 year old and a newborn in a car seat out the door with baths, clean cloths, and all the essentials in less than 20 minutes. I have officially been cleared by my doctor to go back to normal pre-pregnancy living as of today and am going to start training for a 5K on Monday. I've now lost 23 of the 40 pounds I gained with Lily (Lily included in that weight loss)...and I am happier than I've ever been! March was fun... and Life is good!

Saturday Foto: My Wife rocks!

Here’s a little picture that I snapped just the other night before going to bed:

I sure can’t think of a better mother for my two little girls! I think this picture pretty well illustrates Naomi’s commitment to taking care of our girls, and she does a dang good job at it!

More evidence of her awesome-ness: since 2 days after Lily was born (that being over 5 weeks now), Naomi has only missed ONE day working out!  She set herself a goal before Lily was born, that she would start an exercise program that was perfectly tailored to a mom that just delivered an 8 lb bowling ball! She wanted to go walking every day, the first week after the birth, it would just be for 10 minutes at a time.  Sometimes that meant limping out to the mailbox and back… but she did it!  The second week it bumped up to 20 minutes, the third week it was 30 minutes, etc. And like I said, she’s only missed one day that entire time!!  One night at 10:30 PM she realized that she hadn’t gone yet, and trucked out to the gym at our apt complex and walked for 50 minutes on the treadmill before coming home. 

She’s a great example of setting a goal and sticking to it, and I’m sure proud of her! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Lily turned one month old on the 12th of March, so I made an attempt to get some pictures of her so you could all see how much she's grown. It was all in vain, however, because Lily thinks that whenever I'm around her, food should be involved. Any time I touched her, she would whip her head around and try to get my hand in her mouth, and whenever I walked away or wasn't touching her she would scream and cry!


Her skin is actually not that red. It just turns that color when she's really upset. I thinks its kind of funny because it reminds me of a cartoon. All she needs is a little steam coming out of her ears!


Look at that face! She was looking at me like I had just betrayed her or was about to abandon her. How sad!

Anyway, after she gave me that look, I gave up, got her dressed for the day, and put her in her chair. It was cute because she grabbed her teddy bear as soon as I put her down and was kneading it with her fingers while sucking her Binky and moaning with relief.


Her self comforting made for some pretty cute pictures so I took advantage of the moment!


Lily has pretty good hand control and can already reach up and smack a hanging toy, hold on to her teddy bear, keep her Binky in her mouth, and suck her thumb!

Well, after my failed attempt to get one-month-old pictures, I thought I would try again today to get some St. Patrick's Day pictures of the girls together. We got off to a rough start, but eventually got some pretty good ones.


I thought this one was funny because Lily looks like she's begging me to save her life! Ha Ha! Poor thing!


Once Brooklyn stopped man-handling her, Lily calmed down and I got these pictures. She never looks at the camera but its better than nothing!


A quick update on the girls: At Lily's 2 week appointment she weighed 9 pounds and had grown an inch. She is in the 75th percentile for both height and weight and the doctor said she had the healthiest skin she ever saw on a newborn and that she was very strong! She now weighs a little over 10 pounds and is an extremely healthy little baby!


Brooklyn had her 2 year checkup at the same time as Lily's 2 week checkup. She weighed 28 pounds and was 34 inches tall. She measures in the 95th percentile and the doctor said she is EXTREMELY healthy for a two year old. They couldn't believe what a great eater she was (I guess its very common for 2-year-olds to be malnourished) and when they tested her for developmental skills, she shows up on the developmental scale as a three year old in both language and physical development! Pretty cool!


Well, I guess that is about all for now! I hope that this post finds you all in good spirits and enjoying this beautiful St' Patrick's day! Good bye for now!

Sisterly Love!

So, a couple days ago I was trying to make dinner but Lily was exceptionally fussy and wouldn't stop crying long enough for me to get it started! I tried to feed her, hold and snuggle her, passify her, etc. but the second I put her down she would start screaming again. Eventually I had to put her on the couch to scream it out so I could get dinner done before Kevin got home.

About 3 minutes into letting her scream, she suddenly stopped! The first thought that went through my head was that Brooklyn had had enough and put Lily out of her misery! I was freaked out and ran into the living room to check on them both. Well... I was right about one thing. Brooklyn HAD had enough, but instead of smothering her little sister, I found her doing this:

After all I had done to calm her down, all Lily needed was a little love from her big sister. I can't believe that Brooklyn thought of singing "I am a Child of God" to Lily all by herself and I love how sweetly she kisses Lily's hands in between sentences. I am truly blessed to have such sweet and beautiful daughters!

Lovely Lily!

I've been getting a lot of subtle hints lately that people want to see more pictures of Lily. So...nothing fancy, but here are a few pictures I've taken in the last 3 week. Hope you enjoy!


Lily is a pretty relaxed baby. She is content to sit and chill or just sleep all day and never really cries unless she is hungry. But when she does cry its like World War III on my eardrums! Believe it or not, she can scream even louder than Brooklyn!


I don't really like pacifiers but because I decided not to nurse, and because Lily finishes her bottles so fast, I decided to let her use one a couple minutes before and after each bottle. Its funny when she sucks on it before her bottle because she moans the whole time like its the best thing that ever happened to her.


My sister Rachel makes these cute costume bibs called Fib Bibs and she sent me out this Hula Girl Bib! It was so cute and funny, I had to take a picture!


Kevin is famous in our house for being able to make the perfect swaddle. I always think Lily looks like a burrito when he's done with her but it certainly calms her down!


In the first pictures we sent out of Lily, it looked like she had tiny slits for eyes. As you can see, now that the swelling has gone down in her face, Lily's eyes are actually quite large! Just like her big sister!


Lily is a REALLY great eater! She downs 3-4 ounces every 2 1/2 hours like clockwork (except at night when she is nice enough to wait 3-4 hours between meals). At her 2 week appointment, she was already 9 pounds! Kevin and I are sure good at making chubby babies!


Some really awesome people from our apartment complex brought us dinner and balloons one night after we got home from the hospital. One of the guys gave Lily this hat that he claims his "mother" made for her...I personally think he is a closet knitter! :)


Here is Lily basking in the sun from our window and looking ever-so-cute in this hand-me-down dress from Teya and Brinley. Thanks Becca! It's been great to have so many clothes without a baby shower or a shopping spree!


I love this sweet picture of Lily smiling. She has the cutest smile in the world, and although she hasn't really smiled at me yet, she does smile when ever she poops, passes gas, gets her cheeks tickled, or has a good dream. And frankly, that is good enough for me!


This last picture is in honor of Kevin...who is desperately missed right now! He is the most wonderful father in the world and has been great to take Lily whenever I need a break. He loves his girls and we all love him!

Well, I hope that will give you all the fix you need for a little while longer! Until next time! Peace!

Thank Goodness for Grandmas!

The thing I was most grateful for after the birth of Lily, was the help I received from my Moms. I was lucky enough to have both my moms come and stay with me for a week after Lily was born and appreciate all that they did for me and my family!

The day I found out I was going to have Lily, Kevin's mom was on a plane on her way to Chicago! As soon as she arrived, she immediately took charge of Brooklyn and all we had to worry about was having a baby!

During her visit, Mom Hanks washed our laundry, helped us finish decorating and organizing our house, helped me recover a Cheetos-stained chair, took us shopping, drove us around, and cooked us all our meals!


But that's not all!!! She also spent many hours singing to, and entertaining Brooklyn, and caring for Lily. She even slept with Lily every night so I could get some rest and have time to heal!


And just to top everything off, she took Brooklyn on a little clothes shopping spree so her belly wouldn't hang out of all her shirts any more! We had so much fun with Mom Hanks and will forever be grateful for all the time and energy she sacrificed to help us get started! Thanks Mom! We love you!


The night before Mom Hanks left, Mom Uda arrived! It was so neat to have constant companionship and I was happy that we were all able to visit for a day before Mom Hanks had to go home.


My mom picked up right where Kevin's mom left off. She kept our laundry going and the house clean, cooked us some fantastic meals and still managed to keep Lily overnight to help me get one more week of rest! She also had lots of fun playing with Brooklyn and snuggling baby Lily. Kevin and I were even lucky enough to go on a date while she watched both the girls! It was so much fun to get out of the house without dragging diaper bags and baby seats for once!

Brooklyn also got to go on a special date with Grandma Uda to the mall! She got to ride in all the little rides in the kiddy area and, as you can see, was smiling from ear-to-ear with joy! Thank you Mom Uda for your love and the sacrifices you made to spend time with us out in freezing Chicago!

Again we are so grateful to both our moms for helping us adjust to being parents of 2! We couldn't have done it without you guys!