ZZZZZzzzzz.....

OK, so I have no pictures from the actual occasion to accompany this post, but posted sleeping-baby shots anyway...last night (7.20) at only 3 weeks old, Elizabeth slept for 6 consecutive hours!! Then she was up for a while, but slept again for 3.5 more. That means I only got up 1 time!!! This is truly amazing to me, and might have just been a fluke, but i've got my fingers crossed. Up to this point, she has been having one longer stretch at night, lasting from 4-5 hrs on average, but this 6hr stretch was awesome!! Let's hope it's just the beginning of a good sleeping pattern. :)

*Disclaimer:since this happened, 6 or 6.25 hrs has been Elizabeth's max nighttime stretch. Some nights are great like this one with only 1 waking for me, and other nights, like 2 nights ago, drag on and on with 4 or 5 visits to her room! Basically though, she is pretty consistent with one long stretch of 4-6 hrs to start and then 3 hr chunks until around 6 or 7 am.

I also wanted to add a few other things before I forget them! Elizabeth started tracking objects (My face, a toy, etc.) between 3 and 4 weeks. Though AJ's usually very jealous of her now, he likes to bring toys to her and helps pat her back with me when I burp her. Today (7.29) she was crying and he brought her the schnulli (our word for the pacifier). She usually does not like it, and Andy and I have been trying and trying to introduce it with no real success yet. Well, AJ stuck it in her mouth and she started sucking away! Then I laid her down in her crib and she sucked herself to sleep with it! Amazing. And ironic! OK, that's all for now.

Summer's here...Doc's & Tastee Freeze

At the beginning of July our friend's and neighbors, the Long's, came back to the states from Singapore for a 1 mo. stay. That sounds like a lot of time, but it felt too short to me, and I'm sure WAY too short to them. Elizabeth was basically born while they were in the air on their way to Chicago, so during their first week here, we didn't see them too much (The kids had touches of colds they picked up on the plane, so we didn't want them too close to AJ or Elizabeth). But we did manage to head out to one of our favorite parks and to Doc's, our go-to smoothie spot. On July 3rd, this was one of Elizabeth's very first public outings. I carried her in the wrap sling and let AJ run amuck after driving to the park. I put driving in italics because it's crazy to drive to a park that's a 10 or 15 min walk away...unless you gave birth a week prior. :) Since Andy came with too, it was a full-on family outing, and I had it easy since he basically did all the AJ-wrangling. What a great dad!

After playing for a while, we walked over to Doc's and got some lunch and smoothies. It was super fun to get a chance to talk to Emily in real-time and face to face, and to see how much the kids have grown. Her son, Ashwin, has become a major climber and he moves fast! He also thoroughly enjoyed his smoothie, as we can see here. AJ loved his too. Here is is drinking his lately-fav, the "green" smoothie. I love that he always wants to order this one because it's made with kale, spinach and a host of other vitamin-packed veggies, so I don't have to worry about if he eats vegetables at dinner that night!
One banana added in there and "voila!" it's a yummy treat! We were a little slow to get the lids and straws handed out, so AJ is also sporting a 70's style green mustache. Emily's daughter Kaya is so sweet and talkative. She loved meeting "Baby Elizabeth" and like most almost-4 year old girls I know, wanted to be near her and talk to/about her. Kaya is also getting so tall, and there's nothing "toddler" about her anymore. Here she is completely glued to the cartoon that was on at Doc's. In her defense, it was probably about midnight on her body's clock. LOL It's amazing how fast they grow and change.

As if going out to the park and for lunch were not enough for one day, we decided it was a good night for some soft serve. We had never taken AJ to Tastee Freeze together before (he had been one or 2 times before with my mom and I), so he was very excited. Keeping him (and me!) away from TF is tough considering it's about a 4 minute walk from our building, but last year was easier since he was not aware of what ice cream even was! But now that he knows, ice cream is the perfect reward/bribe (when we have to resort to that...). Stellar parenting, I know. Luckily, it takes him longer to eat the itsy-bitsy 75 cent baby cone than for the adults to eat a medium cone or sundae, so I don't have to set a good example my sharing mine with him. Haha!

After we finished our treat, AJ and I walked around the parking lot for a few minutes while Andy took these pictures. I like that wearing Elizabeth in the sling allows me to have my hands free to hold hands with AJ while he walks "the beam" in this pic, and I also like having a picture of myself with my 2 kids before any jealousy entered the scene (more on this later!).
The next picture is of AJ "fixing" this sign with his pliers. While Andy was building AJ's new room upstairs, AJ kept wanting all of his tools. Sharp tools, pointy tools, heavy tools, etc., so Andy bought him his very own plastic tool set. He loves it and the pliers and wrench are his favorites. He walks all around the house looking for screws, nuts, bolts and connections to "fix". One of his regular spots is the doorknob's hole in the hall bathroom's door jamb. He sticks his plastic flat head into it and quotes a book we read, "I'm fixing this door right now, I'll help you later." Thespian or handyman? Unfortunately, he still prefers Daddy's phillip's head screwdriver...

Elizabeth comes home...

Today is exactly one week since we brought Elizabeth home from the hospital. The week has gone pretty well. We went to her first Dr. appointment where she was weighed in at 8lb 12oz (just 2 oz less than her birthweight) so we know she's eating well, and she also passed all of her other tests (temp, bilirubin, etc.). She has also been to the park, had lunch at one of AJ's favorite spots (but she opted for milk when nothing on the menu sounded good to her), met some of our guests who came over with dinner, and yesterday she went to her first party at her aunt and uncle's house. There will be blog coverage coming up on most of these events, but here I just wanted to post some pics of our time at the hospital and Elizabeth's first day home.

Here are some shots of her first visitors...

AJ, her BIG BROTHER! He wasn't super interested in Elizabeth, but was very happy to see Andy and I. He told me, "Good job, Mommy!" and was happy

I had room for him on my lap again. :)

Here is Elizabeth meeting her Omi (my mom).

And this was Pa's second visit, the Saturday after she was born.

Here is Andy changing her diaper. What a great Dad he is!

Elizabeth met Auntie Kim in the hospital too!

Here's Andy holding our little "burrito" as we

affectionately call her when she's swaddled.

Andy took this shot of Elizabeth napping with me. We were wiped out!

Look at those cheeks! I have been mooshing then daily.

Here's a shot from Sat the 27th when my parents came with AJ to visit.

Here's Mommy and Baby dressed and ready to go home!

She looked SOOOO TINY in her carseat!!

Here's my mom holding her on her first day home, last Sunday, the 28th.

Andy and I got AJ 2 new books to celebrate his becoming a Big Bro. This one's called Digger and has pages all about the machines he loves right now. We also bought him his own copy of Freight Train by Donald Crews since he loves it and is often disappointed when it's not available from the library. He was pretty happy!

Here is AJ pretending to be Elizabeth...pretty good impression!

And here's a short video of AJ almost interacting with his little sister on her first day home.