Alyssa Crawls!

Following in her big sister's foot steps, Alyssa is officially "crawling" at 7.5 months! And just like Samantha did, her version of "crawling" is really just dragging herself across the floor. But I know, just like Samantha did, in another month she will be up on her hands and knees and all over the place! Things just got a little crazier over here!

Here's the little crawl baby in action...

Three Years Old!

Someone just turned three!

To celebrate we threw a princess pizza party!

Even Alyssa joined in on the princess fun!

Samantha loved her princess cake, and didn't need any help blowing out the candles. The cake came with three disney princess cake toppers, which Samantha was so nice to share with her friends, and when her cousin Julia asked if she could take Cinderella home, Samantha said "yes." I was so proud of her. She is so good at sharing and very generous with her friends.

Some favorite birthday gifts include a microphone that plays music from The Little Mermaid, and a pink princess big wheel, both pictured here.

And Daddy gave Samantha a bride dress, so he could practice walking her down the isle.

The hoop skirt makes it hard to sit in.

Here are Samantha's stats from her 3 year check up:

Weight: 31.6 pounds (61%)

Height: 37 inches (51%)

At three years old, Samantha is loads of fun! I'm really enjoying this age, I just wish I could press pause and linger here for a while in this world where I'm surprised and overjoyed every day by this adorable little person who says the cutest things. (Like today, when the news was on she said, "Mom, this is adult TV. Don't you think I should be watching kid TV? I think you should put on a kid movie." Yes she's already learned how to be passive agressive!)

Samantha is a girly girl. She loves princesses and barbie dolls, she loves to dress up and she can't bear to be in anything but a tutu. The other day when begging her to take her tutu off and put on her pajamas she said "But I'll never get my first kiss if I'm wearing pajamas! I need to wear a tutu!" Yes, we are in big trouble, and no, I have no idea where she heard the expression "I'll never get my first kiss." I swear I"m not letting her watch PG 13 movies.

Samantha loves to sing, right now she is really into show tunes. She loves "Seasons of Love" from the Rent soundtrack, and "Master of the House" from Les Mis. She also loves "The Little Mermaid" soundtrack and yes, we are still singing Christmas songs. While jingle bells was last year's favorite, this year we've been singing a lot of The Drummer Boy and Hark The Herald Angels Sing.

Samantha still takes a nap in the afternoon, from about 2:30-4:30. Although, she does not sleep every day, some days she just plays in her room. Then at bedtime I put her down at 8 and sometimes she is good and stays in her bed and goes to sleep, but on most days we play "jack in the box." She comes out of her room, I put her back in. Sometimes I find her sleeping in the upstairs hallway, I guess to her anything is better than being in her room..it means she was able to get a little bit of control.

Oh yes, the control thing..I guess this comes with the threes. We saw it with the twos, but it's really come in full force lately. Samantha can do everything "all by myself!" She wants to brush her own teeth, get herself dressed, get herself buckled in the car, anything that Mommy would normally do for her she wants to do...which is great..Mommy just has to remember to start factoring extra time in our routine to accommodate all of these "all by myselfs."

Other than the bedtime struggles and the occasional power struggle, Samantha is an excellent kid. Her teacher laughed at her parent-teacher conference, saying she is like no kid she has ever had before. She is assertive yet sweet. Meaning, she is a go getter, she knows what she wants, but at the same time she is sweet with the other kids, she is not aggressive and has no problem sharing. I think this is a pretty good description of her. She is sweet, and she, for the most part, always does what you ask her to do. If you say "Sam it's time to clean up your toys and go upstairs." she says "okay" and starts cleaning up. She is super outgoing and loves to play. She makes a new friend everywhere we go, the grocery store, CVS, you name it. When we drop her off at school she just runs to her friends and starts playing. While the other kids in her two year old class are still clinging to their moms, I have to beg Sam to come give me a kiss goodbye.

I can't imagine my life with out Samantha in it. We spend all of our time together, she's practically my best friend (although I swear I do have adult friends!). We go shopping together and while I'm trying things on she'll say "that looks beautiful on you Mom!" We cuddle on the couch and watch movies together, we bake cupcakes together, she helps me with Alyssa, we do everything together (except on Tuesday and Thursday mornings when Sam has school. Sometimes while we are in the middle of playing barbies or whatever, I will stop and just stare at her and take in how beautiful she is. Her big blue eyes, her full lips, her high cheek bones. She really is beautiful on the inside and out. I couldn't be more pleased with her.

6 months!

Alyssa is six months old! Here are her stats:

Weight: 16 lbs 10 oz. (68th percentile)

Height: 28 inches (97th percentile!)

Head Circumference: 16.5 inches

Alyssa's first six months of life were a bit chaotic. First she had jaundice and spent her first few days of life away from me under light therapy. Then she came home from the hospital on a billy blanket, and had to have in home nurse care for a few days. The she cried nonstop for three months until we finally realized that she has acid reflux and a dairy intolerance. Things got better once I gave up dairy and we got her on zantac, but then we went through the craziness of putting our house on the market and moving. The poor girl has not had a lot of peace and quiet in her short life, but finally things have calmed down, and after six months, and a lot of effort on my part, Alyssa is finally on a schedule!

She wakes up smiling around 7:30am, takes a morning nap from about 9:30-11am. The we go out for the day, because we have to get big sis out of the house. Sometimes we just go pick up big sis from school and have lunch, sometimes we take big sis to gymnastics class and we sit and play and watch, sometimes we go to playgroup, sometimes the park, sometimes just to the grocery store or other little errands, but we try to get out every day because Alyssa does so much better and is so much happier when she is distracted and out of the house!

Alyssa and Samantha both go down for an afternoon nap at 2pm, and (I'm scared to write this down because I'm worried I may jinx it!) I get to enjoy 2.5 hours of quiet while both girls nap until about 4:30. After naps we play, cook in the kitchen, and at 5:30 Alyssa eats her dinner.

Yes, she's eating now...well, kind of. She is just like her sister and so far hates solids. She turns her head and refuses the spoon when I try to feed her, but she will happily take the spoon from my hand and feed herself, although by the time the spoon reaches her mouth there is no food on it. I'm longing for the day when she masters the pincher grasp so we can end this game of throw the spoon full of mashed up food, and move onto the gerber puffs.

After dinner the girls take their bath and Alyssa is in bed at 6:30pm. She still wakes up at night, once or twice to nurse, but hey, nobody's perfect! It's just so nice to finally have some rhythm and regularity to our day. After six months of chaos we are ready for a long boring winter!

Alyssa is kind of, sort of sitting by herself. I usually stand behind her, or prop pillows up around her because she will fall after a little while of sitting on her own, but she is getting there and I expect she will master the skill by her 7 month birthday. She loves being on her tummy. Every time I put her down on her back she immediately rolls herself over onto her tummy and starts "skydiving" bobbing her head up and down, kicking her legs and putting her arms out to the side.

Alyssa is still happily nursing, and I'm still happy about that. Samantha never had a drop of formula and I planned on doing the same with Aly, but plans changed when I had to throw out my entire milk supply because it was all laden with dairy. She gets one to two bottles of formula a day, and the rest is breast milk. I plan to keep on nursing until she is a year, but I do admit that I really miss cheese. However, it was nice over the holidays to not gain five pounds from all the cookies I usually eat.

Alyssa adores her big sister. She laughs in the morning when she sees Samantha. Just the sight of her big sis after a long night with out her makes her giggle with joy. When Alyssa starts crying and I'm busy with something I shout "Sam, make you sister happy!" and Sam goes over and puts her face in Alyssa's face and makes funny noises and sounds and the crying immediately stops as Alyssa stares at Samantha, fascinated by her big sis. The feeling is mutual, Samantha loves Alyssa too. When Samantha wakes up in the morning the first thing she asks for is Alyssa. When I pick Samantha up from school the first thing she does is stick her face in Alyssa's infant carrier and gives her kisses. For now we seem to have escaped sibling rivalry, as the girls are both equally obsessed with each other.

I feel like I can finally exhale and put my feet up, as we continue to settle into our new home and new schedule, life is finally getting easier. We love our new house, we love our life here, we love our girls, and we LOVE Alyssa!

Happy New Year!

2011 was the year of change for us. My family was forever changed with the loss of my Aunt Francine and Uncle Stan and then with the addition of our little Alyssa. Samantha went from baby to big girl as she gave up diapers and a crib in the past year. We bought a new house, sold our first home and moved for the first time (and hopefully the last!) in Samantha and Alyssa's life. It has been a roller coaster of a year, and while most of these changes were good changes, they were still difficult to maneuver through. I'm welcoming 2012 with open arms as we settle into our new life in our new home. Here's hoping this year is quiet and calm, and that the road ahead of us (for now anyway) is nice and flat!

Alyssa's First Christmas!

The presents have been opened, the shopping is all done, our bellies are stuffed and all I can think about is getting into January so I can start the New Years diet and get my house back in order...but for the next few days we will continue to bask in the glow of Christmas.

We had a lovely Christmas this year! Yia Yia and Grandpa both came up from Virginia and are staying with us, now that we have so much room in our new house! We went to church on Christmas eve and then came home and put the cookies that Yia Yia and the girls had baked out by the fireplace for Santa. Pete and Sam took a good look to see if Santa had plenty of room to get down.

Then we sprinkled reindeer food outside in our backyard. Sam made the reindeer food in school with oats and glitter. We really wanted to be sure that Santa didn't skip over our house, especially for little sister Alyssa's first Christmas!

Samantha could barely contain her excitement as she crept down the stairs Christmas morning.

Santa had come!

Samantha got a new kitchen...

And a vanity...

But the only gift she really cared about, and the only thing she really wanted was a Belle dress. She started asking for one last July. And after three gifts she was done! She got what she wanted and had no interest in opening any more gifts. Good thing she has a birthday coming up, we saved the rest for her birthday party!

So Alyssa started opening her gifts. She got some stackable rings and a few tethers, as well as a couple of rattles. But her favorite gift was from Aunt Jessica, Uncle Chuck and cousin Ben..a baby einsteen toy that lights up and makes all sorts of noise.

After we all got dressed (except for Samantha, who never changed out of her Belle dress all day) we welcomed Aunt Becca and Uncle Rich and Baby Tessa, who was also celebrating her first Christmas!

Mom Mom and Pop Pop also came over bearing gifts. Including monogrammed chairs from Pottery Barn for both of the girls. Samantha loves hers and even took her afternoon nap on it!

The we broke in our new dining room and all sat down to dinner. I'd love to say that I cooked a beautiful meal, but I didn't. Yia Yia and Mom Mom really did all of the cooking while I nursed and held Alyssa and chased Samantha around the house.

After dinner the boys relaxed on our new sofa..

And the girls got into their matching jams and relaxed on their new chairs as well!

Then it was time for bed. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Samantha's First Nutcraker Ballet

I still remember the first time my Mom took me to see the Nutcracker Ballet. I was probably around six. I remember my Mom told me that the Sugar Plum Fairy was the "prima ballerina" the best dancer in the show. I was mesmerized, and at the end of the show when the sugar plum fairy took her bow, I remember standing up and clapping so hard that my hands hurt.

On Saturday I took Samantha to see the Nutcracker Ballet for the first time. Belle and the Beast had to come too (the toys in Sam's hands).


(By the way..this is the mudroom of our new house, which leads out to the garage. Love having a garage!!! And first floor laundry!!)



Samantha could barely contain her excitement while waiting for the lights to dim and the show to start!


Through out the show she leaned over the railing and watched the stage, almost as mesmerized as I was so many years ago. She talked a lot, things like: "Mommy, what are they saying?" and "Where's Clara's Mommy?" and "She's wearing ballet shoes!" and "That's the Mouse King!!" Thankfully, we went to an 11am show, so there were lots of kids in the audience, and they didn't mind the talking so much. Also, thanks to Aunt Jen, we had fabulous seats and Sam had plenty of room to stand up and twirl around when she felt like it (which was often!).

And thanks to Aunt Jen's connections, after the show we got to go back stage! Here we are in front of the growing Christmas tree with Aunt Jen and her niece Katelynn.

I think I better get Samantha enrolled in ballet classes! Here's to my future little prima ballerina!

First tooth!

During the craziness of moving, I stuck my finger in Alyssa's mouth and discovered that she had not one but two bottom teeth! Her front two bottom teeth have come in! The best part is, I didn't even know she was teething! Unlike the usual fussiness and sleeplessness that comes with teething, Alyssa is sleeping well and has become a pretty happy little baby! In a few more weeks, we are going to put those teeth to good use and start solids!