Leah Loo, Jelly Boo, and Teddy Too

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Mod Princess

I am loving the new cut and hippie dress!

Grandma and Grandpa--Summer Visit

Leah had lots of fun visiting with Grandma and Grandpa. They road tripped it to visit us (and to drop off several cases of the newest vintage). They stayed for a few days, then went to DC to visit Auntie Chantal. They came back to spend the last few days of the trip with us. Grandma and Grandpa are great house guests, and helped out quite a bit. Grandma watched Juliet while Grandpa and I cleaned out my classroom, and again when I took Sass to get her haircut. She also washed almost all our clothes! Sassy was taken with Grandma's nails, and asked for "white polish" for her own nails. Sassy liked the last night they stayed, when all the local aunts and cousins came over to play and eat dinner. She kept telling me, "They love Leah. I think they all like to play with Leah at Leah's house!" Leah has been partying hard the last few nights, and staying up to 10:30 or later! We need a (slightly) earlier bedtime!

Best Friends

When my parents came back, we planned a family fun night with Auntie Robin and her parents. We did our usual appetizer and wine dinner. Robin and I tried to get pictures of Juliet and Anna in their matching dresses, but they weren't really into it. I tried to get pictures of Lukey and Leah playing, but they all were too blurry, as Lukey is always on the move! We finally got some pictures of them after putting in a Sesame Street. Leah has already agreed to marry Lukey, so we need lots of pictures of the courtship for their wedding.

Southern Charm

The girlies in matching bows (complete with each of their initials embroidered). Leah would only put the bow in after I bribed her with pretzels, and would only take the picture after the promise of Twizzlers. Sassy!

Happy Girl!

Juliet is such a happy girl now! I'm not sure if the problem was a dairy issue or what (either way, no dairy for me for a while because I can't go back to the way it was!), but Jelly Bean is a MUCH happier girl now! She still gets a little fussy in the evenings, but the afternoons are nowhere near as miserable as they had been. Jelly Belly still likes to be held, and wakes up quickly if you put her down, but she hasn't needed the hour plus of bouncing and rocking that she had been requiring. If you allow her to sleep on her belly, she'll give you some long stretches of sleep (2.5 hours and 1.5 hours for Grandma!), but we're too nervous to do that unless someone is sitting with her (Grandma was). We are loving our happy girl!

Fireworks 2012

After lots of anticipation, we went to the annual firework show with Auntie Renee and family. We think it was worth the wait. Leah had lots of fun eating junk food and watching the show. Afterward, she had fun running around with her cousins.

Juliet slept most of the time, but woke up briefly to enjoy the show.

That is Leah's Oreo cookie face after Chris wiped it off. A little cookie monster!

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Sweet Baby

Liberty Fest

Robin and I decided to take our families to the Liberty Fest on Saturday morning. We knew it was going to be hot, so we went as soon as it opened. I was trying to tell Sass about the festival. I told her there would be animals, and she was not impressed. She kept telling me, "just wait until next week to see the animals, Mama, not tomorrow." So, instead, I told her about the rides. We google imaged "merry-go-rounds" and Lili started to get excited. She kept telling us about the horses that go around really fast. She has a difficult time remembering the name of the ride, so she just kept calling it "America". As in, "I want to ride America!" The above picture is her when I told her to show me how excited she was to ride "America".

Sassy really liked the merry-go-round. She rode it twice, once with Mama and once with Dada. The ride went really fast and made me feel like I was going to vomit.

There were other rides for kids. We weren't sure whether Sassy would ride any by herself, but she did! She was so proud of herself. She rode a train and an airplane ride all by herself! She had such a proud expression. The weather was really hot, or we probably would have stayed at the fest longer.

Juliet did great! She slept until we started walking back to the car. We were so proud of her! She also had her first night where she wasn't up for a hour in the middle of the night. She just nursed and went right back to bed!

On the way out, Sassy decided to go back to the animals. We went in the beginning, but Sassy just wanted to stay in the stroller with a sullen expression. On the way out, we went back. Sassy still didn't like the farm animals, but she loved the parrots. I said, "Wow, look at those birds!" And Sass replied, "What birds? Those are parrots." Haha.

Tie-Die Ladies

First Smiles

I woke up on Friday morning to sweet Juliet smiling beside me. At first, I thought I was dreaming, or she had gas. Then I started talking to her and she just kept smiling while looking at my face intently. Sassy woke up (she is allowed in the "white bed" when the sun comes up, so she usually joins me in bed between 5:00 and 6:00am and snoozes some more until 7:30/8:00) and noticed Juliet smiling. She was making silly faces at her and saying "she's happy, Mommy?!" with a tinge of disbelief.

I was worried that the morning was a fluke, so after an afternoon nap, I tried to get her to smile again. And she did! She has to be in the right mood to do it, but when she does it is great! Daddy and I have seen several smiles from our Jelly Belly Boo Boo.

We are glad to see smiles because she has been so fussy lately. There has been a lot of bouncing, rocking, and baby wearing in our house lately. I actually went full out hippie and bought the Moby Wrap. She likes it, but I worry about her getting too hot. Her disposition is improving, but there are times where she just seems really uncomfortable.

Leah's first social smile was at 6 weeks. So, Jelly Belly beat her on this milestone at 4 weeks (and 6 days).

I know she's not smiling in the above picture, but I just really like it.

Outside Fun

Leah Bean LOVES watering the flowers. Filling up the watering can and then "washing my hands" is one of her favorite outdoor activities. The Sand and Water Table is another hit. Usually we have to save our outdoor play for when Daddy is home, but Jelly Belly had a GREAT morning earlier this week, and we got to play outside for almost an hour while she slept.

Park

After a frustrating day with Jelly Bean, I promised Sassy that we could do something fun when Daddy got home from work. Sass asked to go to the park. We obliged.