Better, but still tired

Leo woke last night at 10:30, 11:30, and 3:30, but I pacified him those times and ended up feeding him at 1:30 and 4:45. Better. Now if I can stop him from waking those in between times we'll be golden for a while.

I never could get those other videos to upload to YouTube. Here are some new ones on the little camera.





And here is Olivia pretending to be Super Bunny today. Notice the "cape", the dirty face (from eating chocolate), and no pants because we had just gotten back from the pool and I couldn't find her shorts. Good times!

Another pool day!

In other news, after less than a week of having a certain Max and Ruby book checked out from the library, Olivia can now recite the song that Ruby and Louise "sing" in the book. Olivia was singing it all day today. It goes like this:

Brown sugar, applesauce, spices, flour
Put them in the oven for half and hour
Bake, bubble, bubble, bake
Apple pie is fun to make!

Schedule. What schedule?

Unfortunately, Leo is not on a schedule at all and I am so tired the past couple of days feeding him. Growth spurt? I don't know, but he ate every 2-2.5 hours today. And last night he was up three hours after I put him to bed, then every hour and a half because I brought him to bed to nurse and we both kept falling asleep after he finished just one side. Ugh. Tonight I am promising myself to get up and take him to the nursery to nurse and make him finish. His lack of schedule is totally my fault because we do so much running with Olivia to story time, gymnastics, etc. Mostly, we've been okay with it because one of his naps falls into Olivia's two hour afternoon nap, so I usually get at least 30 minutes of a nap everyday. But the past couple of nights have been tiring, so I am tired, which means I have to evaluate. I also am either getting mastitis again or I have a plugged duct. Oh, joy. Otherwise, though, breastfeeding is going well.

This weekend, we went to a birthday party for one of our neighbors who was born on the same day as Olivia. It was a Mickey birthday party at Bower's park. They had a great location--shaded with a great play area. I should have gotten some pictures, but this is the only one I got while we ate lunch at the end of the party. We left early because Leo needed to eat and we had already been the an hour a half. Olivia, on the way home, said, "I had so much fun at the party!" Me, too!

Nicholas took Olivia to the pool and playground on his own on Friday afternoon while I did a few things around the house and nursed Leo. Then, we all went to the pool and playground Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Fun was had by all, I think. Here are some pictures.

Conversations with Olivia

I thought I should dedicate a post to my little talker. Olivia continues to be talking up a storm. Here are some recent conversations:

One morning this week:
Olivia: Mommy, where are you?
Me: I'm in the closet getting dressed.
Olivia: You need help?
Me: Yes. Come pick out my clothes.
Olivia: I can do that for you!

During Leo's bath time:
Olivia: Mommy, what's that?
Me: Those are Leo's boy parts.
Olivia: I want boy parts.
Me: Olivia, girls and boys have different parts on their bottoms. Leo has boy parts and you have girl parts.
Olivia: No. I want boy parts.

During dinner:
Olivia: Mommy, I have to tell you something:
Me: Yes, Olivia. What do you want to tell me.
Olivia: No boys allowed in my princess tent.
Me: Of course. (laughing)
Olivia: Stop laughing.

Tuesday

I have no idea why my videos didn't upload to YouTube. It says they failed to process. Annoying. I'll try to figure that one out in my spare time...

And here is another picture from the weekend of Nicholas and Olivia at the playground. Olivia is such a little copy cat. She saw another little girl go down the slide on her belly, so she did, too. Then Olivia wanted to go on the monkey bars because the other kids were doing it. I guess that is how development goes at this age.

Olivia's imagination continues to amaze me. She wanted to be "Super Bunny" today, which is in reference to one of her Max and Ruby episodes where Max has on a cape and pretends to be Super Bunny. We tied one of her long sleeved pink dresses around her neck like a cape, and she flew around the backyard. Dragons continues to be a favorite game; horses, too; and now princesses since Nicholas put up her princess tent that we got her for Christmas, but I put back since I felt like we bought her too much. Pictures, soon.

And, for those of you wanting to get Olivia a gift for her birthday and you want ideas, here are a few:

Books -- anything, now. They don't have to be board books. She especially likes Max and Ruby books, Backyardigan books, Olivia books, and anything to do with animals.

Hair bows on clips -- we live in the south and these girls are decked out all the time. The only big one she has is the white one in the picture below.

Pretend doctor kit

She doesn't need clothes, but if you decide to get her some, she is a size 2T.

In other news, Olivia has started hitting Leo and me in the past few days. Not hard, but enough that she knows she shouldn't be doing it. It is usually while I am nursing Leo and she wants my attention. We are working this out. I told her we would have some special time just she and I this week. I think we've been running around a little too much, and in the hurry, we haven't had a lot of quality cuddle time.

Another week has passed

I'm the worst blogger lately. I didn't even do a special post when Leo ROLLED OVER!! It was Thursday of last week and we were doing tummy time on the floor when he decided he was done. He rolled over from belly to back, which is the opposite way that Olivia first rolled over. He hasn't done it since, but it looks like he is really working on rolling over from back to belly now.

We've had another great week. Last Monday we had a playdate with my friend Rachel and her baby Sol, who is two weeks younger than Leo. Tuesday morning is MMO for Olivia and in the afternoon we go to Baby Talk class, which is a class led by the Child Development Center on campus that talks about baby/toddler issues and has toys for the kids to play with. They also do songs and stories each week. Nicholas came with us, and I got to go to a yoga class Tuesday night. Awesome!! Wednesday is story time at the library. Thursday is MMO for Olivia, and Friday morning is gymnastics. Saturday we went to the Back Yard Bash sponsored by the Child Development Center. It was awesome. There were lots of stations: snacks, bubbles, face-painting, music, obstacle course, sidewalk chalk, painting, and story time. Olivia's favorite was the obstacle course, and thanks to her (intentionally) squeaky shoes, she was a hit with everyone. We had loads of fun. The rest of the weekend was mostly family time, and that was great, too. Nicholas planted Leo's tree. (Devout blog readers will remember that we planted a willow oak for Olivia the year she was born.) We planted a magnolia for Leo.

Olivia with her face painted.

You can see the obstacle course in the background, which consisted of a sack race, hula hoops to hop through, a box to crawl through, and then a space to run to the finish line.

Olivia loves running around the house. Here she is chasing Daddy, yelling, "More running, Daddy!"

And for all those interested, Leo and I have almost made it to my second breastfeeding goal of 12 weeks (on Wednesday). It's gotten much easier, as I can often feed him in 20 minutes. I only pump once a day or sometimes none, which is my favorite. Leo continues to grow and be happy, so I think all is going well. Except that I bring Leo into our bed for the last feeding of the night, which I know is a bad habit. Here he is this morning with Nicholas. So cute!

And I am uploading videos of Leo cooing to YouTube as I type. I promise to post links next time!

These are the days

We had a good week. I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted. The weeks go by fast. Leo is starting to get into a schedule. He is taking three-four naps a day and still eating about every three hours. He often skips or elongates between the bedtime feeding and the first night time feeding. Tonight he ate at 7:30, just fell asleep at 9:30, and will probably be up around 12:30 or 1 AM to eat again. He gets up between 6:30 and 7 AM and takes his first nap between 9 and 10. Getting up does not coincide with eating, usually. We are doing pretty well, too, with not eating to fall asleep. Except during the night when I sometimes bring him to bed to nurse. Leo continues to be a great baby!

Olivia continues to amaze me with her sentence structure, her memory, and the words she is able to repeat. Here are some of the things out of her mouth lately:

That sounds great!

Mommy, I cried and cried and cried and cried and you didn't come in. (I've turned off the monitor at night. It was just too much and she is too old to be needing me during the night. That was the first two nights. Now she is sleeping and happy when I come in in the morning, but she still talks about that first night.)

What's her name?

I do not put my fingers in my poop. (Yes. I had to tell her this. And she repeated.)

That's not so nice. (In response to Max taking Ruby's dolls.)

And here is sweet Leo in Olivia's old high chair, just hanging out with us Saturday morning while Olivia and I had muffins.

This is a typical day at the playground with Leo in his tent and Olivia on her horse.

And we made it to the pool on Saturday for some girl sun time! It was really nice!

I have some videos of Leo cooing, but iMovie and I are not friends right now. I'll get them up later, I promise!

Easter weekend

Here is Olivia with the first honey suckles of the season at the playground. The air smelled so sweet on Saturday! Loved it!

Here is Olivia on the new horse at the playground. She has been so funny wanting to play cowgirl and/or horses (where she pretends to actually be a horse) at the playground. She can get on and off this horse, too, which is fantastic for me with Leo.

And Leo has been having a good time at the playground, too. Isn't he cute? (Of course, on Easter itself, Leo and I were having a rough day. He was eating every two hours and I was exhausted!!)

Here is Leo doing some of his pseudo-tummy time. He is getting so strong!!

And this is Olivia on the Jump-O-Lene that Uncle Charlie bought her. Now she wants to go out in the backyard as soon as she wakes up in the morning. She loves it!

Here are a couple of pictures with Daddy on Easter morning. Olivia was so excited that the Easter Bunny came to our house. Later when we went for a walk in the neighborhood, she kept saying, "I can't find Easter Bunny!" Whenever she talks about her new bubble machine or the other toys she got, she says, "Easter Bunny so nice!" or "Easter Bunny brought me candy!"