Aug 28 pics

The latest:

Ellena is 1 month old!

My parents are in town for a few days. When we eat dinner together, Evan says, "Evan has soo many grandparents! Why Evan have so many grandparents?" We tell him, "Cause you are soo lucky."

All Evan wanted to do with my dad, Grandpa Bang-Bang, is fix the banister. They finally got to work on it this morning.

Aug 21 pics

Brother & Sister together

Go Ravens!

New use for the Boppy - Naughty Piko!!

Poppa's Evanisms 8/20

Evan has gotten much closer to Pops since the arrival of Ellena. They have gone on adventures, just the two of them, and have really bonded. Some Evanisms from Poppa's point of view:

* Evan and Poppa like to hit up Jamba Juice when they are out together. I tend to put a stop to this if I'm with them (total party pooper.) Yesterday, the two of them went out alone and drove by a Jamba. Evan said, "Poppa, let's go get Jamba Juice cause Momma's not here!"

* The other night, Evan woke up while I was feeding Ellena. He wanted to be tucked back in. I told him I couldn't, so to have Poppa help him. He somehow convinced Poppa to sleep in his room on the ground. At 6:30 in the morning, Evan started hitting Poppa with a blanket saying, "Marshmallows! Marshmallows! Marshmallows!"

* Same story from above. Poppa then asked Evan why he had to sleep in Evan's room. Evan said, "Momma said 'go back to bed'. That's unbelievable!"

* Poppa and Evan were watching the US basketball team on the computer while eating breakfast. Poppa said, "OHHHHHH!" when there was a really cool dunk. Evan then said, "Oh Sh*t!" Potty mouth!

The Little Tease

Bro & Sis

Here's a pic of Ellena from this morning.

Her expression reminded me of a pic of Evan when he was about a month old.

They don't look alike (he looks like Pops, she looks like me), but they sure are cutie pies!

Telling Time

We encourage Evan to sleep in til 7:00. We notice that if he wakes up any earlier, he gets tired and cranky really fast. So I used to tell him, "It's too early. It's still ne-ne time. Go back to sleep." Then I started saying, "Sleep in til 7:00." Of course, he has no way of knowing when 7:00 is. So we showed him on his clock when 7:00 is. He has sports balls instead of numbers on his wall clock, so we call it "7:00 soccer ball." Last week, I was feeding Ellena in her room at 6:30. I heard Evan in his room walking around and playing with toys. (This is unusual, since he usually wakes up and calls out for us from bed.) Then, at 7:00 on the dot, he called out, "Momma! It's 7:00 soccer ball!"

He has since become obsessed with time. He constantly asks throughout the day what time it is. One time he had a hard time falling asleep at naptime. I showed him that he needed to sleep til "4:00 baseball". He ended up crashing and waking up at 4:45. He asked what time it was and I told him. He then said, "I slept through!"

The last couple days, Evan missed a nap and went to bed late. So thankfully, he caught up on some sleep by sleeping til 8:00 the last couple mornings. He woke up a little before then, but waited til the top of the hour before calling out, "Poppa, it's 7:00 soccer ball!" Poppa said, "No, it's 8:00 basketball, silly!"

Big Brother

Evan has been a very caring big brother to little Ellena. Here are some moments that I want to blog about before I forget.

* This morning Ellena was in her infant carrier/car seat while Evan and I ate breakfast. She started squirming and I told her I would check on her after breakfast. Evan said, "I will check on her." He climbed out of his chair and stood in front of Ellena. He then bent over and said, "Shh shh shh." It was the cutest thing.

* We sometimes ask Ellena rhetorical questions like, "Why are you crying?!" Evan chimes in, "Because she's a baby!"

* Evan loves checking on Ellena in her crib. He carries a stool into her room so that he can look in.

* Evan gives her a kiss good night on her foot. Sometimes her head, but usually her foot.

* When we brought Ellena home from the hospital, Evan insisted on eating his snack with her. I'll dig up a picture on the other computer and post it later (in my free time!).

The Little Things

Here are some of the little things that slipped my mind about having a newborn in the house:

* How GOOD I feel when Ellena gets a burp out.

* How nice a stretch of 2-3 hours of sleep feels rather than 1 hour (or less!).

* How handy toes are for picking things off the ground when I'm carrying the little one.

* How nice it feels to snuggle with Pops or the kitties when I'm coming back to bed after a middle of the night feed. Said snuggle partners may be fast asleep, but I still get some much needed comfort.

First Tub Bath

Latest Pics

Little Lady Bug

Ellena is not up very much, so I try to capitalize on those rare moments when she is awake. Here's a picture from this morning. I love her little expression. And yes, I think she's looking more like me.

The Stump

We had big brother Evan pluck out Ellena's belly button stump yesterday. Poppa said, "We were 95% sure it was ready to come out."

Here's how it played out.

Before:

During:

After:

Rough Night For All

After a pretty good night of sleep on Friday (Ellena had a 3.5 hour stretch, which made me feel so rested!), last night was pretty rough.

She was up quite a bit and sleeping for short periods. After being fed, she didn't want to be alone, so I dropped her off with Pops and they passed out together. Evan had a rough night as well. Around 11:30, his fever broke and his sheets were soaked in sweat. Later, at 4 AM, his fever was back and he was feeling crummy. Poor guy! Thankfully, he woke up quite perky and seems to be feeling much better today.

Hopefully we will all get a nice long afternoon nap!

What's With This Pose?

I'm not convinced that Ellena looks exactly like Evan, but there are certain angles where you can tell they are brother-sister.

Here's a pic of Evan when he was a few weeks old.

Here's a pic of Ellena, just shy of one week old.

It's funny how they both like to hang out in the same pose. Must be comfy. :)

An Update

So here's an update on how things are going.

Me: Still healing. Feel like this time around, healing is going much faster than the first time. Pretty tired, having some long nights, and trying to take it easy during the day. Nursing is going alright - way better than with Evan, so I'm pleased.

Pops: Big helper at night - I'm so spoiled. Big helper with Evan, when Evan lets him. What am I going to do when he goes back to work???

Ellena: Started home phototherapy last night to treat her jaundice. We did this with Evan, so no big surprises here. Awaiting today's lab results to see if she has peaked and her levels are going down (good!) or not (bad!). Jaundice has made her extremely sleepy and lethargic. She starts off as an enthusiastic nurser, but quickly winds down and passes out.

So it's taken me a while to finish this post. It is now Saturday and Ellena is done with the lightbed. She's a whopping 7 pounds at today's weigh in (just under her birth weight) and has already outgrown one outfit! She is much more perky - stayed up all morning, which is a world record for her.

Evan: Doing surprisingly well. Has his moments of "I only want Momma!" but all in all, he's adjusting. He has been a great big brother and helps out whenever he can. He caught a cold on Friday, so it's been tough on the dude.