Emma's Two Months Old!

At two months old, Emma is an established member of our family already.  She started smiling and cooing at us around six weeks old and watches Lucy very intently from her bouncer chair.  We aren't sure if it is for self-protection, or if she is just in awe of her big sister.  Based on the smiles she is constantly giving Lucy though, we are thinking her gaze is less about defense and more about admiration.

Last week at Emma's doctor appointment, we were told that Emma has the upper body and head strength of a four month old.  When your baby is less than two months old and pretty much sleeps, eats, poops and occasionally smiles, you'll take any characteristic prominent in your child and run with it.  We are shamelessly proud of our baby's physical strength and now refer to Emma as our little athlete.  Look at her standing and holding her head up like a big girl!

As our third child, it is almost impossible not to compare Emma to her two older siblings.  I'm not sure who is at the disadvantage with this habit, but either way, it is hard not to do.  Lucy never paid attention to the TV until she was about 18 months old and even now will be hard pressed to sit for longer than 10 or 15 minutes in front of it.  Emma on the other hand, will follow the TV with her eyes and fuss if she is facing the opposite direction and can't see it while it is on.  Here are the sisters below, watching Elmo together.

Here Emma is below in her car seat, holding onto her big sister's hand while Lucy sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to help Emma stop fussing.  During Emma's first week of life I happened to sing this song during a crying spell of hers.  Since then, every time Emma makes a peep Lucy launches into a verse or two of this same song and miracle of miracles, it calms Emma right down!

Emma was baptised this past month and we had a beautiful day to celebrate.  The picture below is part of a tradition that sadly started at Luke's funeral.  Luke was laid out in front of this stained glass window at our church before his funeral.  It was here that we greeted our friends and family by his side and through tears proudly watched them meet him for the first and last time on earth.  We have since taken Lucy's baptism pictures and now Emma's in front of it.  It is yet another way that we have found to integrate Luke into family traditions, and it helps us feel his presence with us.

 Here are Emma's godparents, my brother Mike and sister-in-law Jenna.

Lucy and Emma fell asleep on the way home from the baptism, and held each other's hands even while sleeping.

Here Emma is in her baptismal gown.  Lucy wore the same one, as did myself, all my siblings, my mom and all of her siblings too.

Emma cuddling with her godfather after her baptism.

Emma cuddling with her Great Grandma J. at her baptism party.

This has been a great month for little Emma.  She has found a way to fit right in to our family of four on earth and at two months it feels like she has always been here with us.  She follows a simple pattern of eating, alert time and sleeping throughout the day, and sleeps very well throughout the night.  She continues to be a laid back baby and we are so happy she is here with us!

Treasured Twos

This past month definitely came with it's share of challenges.  Lucy is apparently still processing the adjustment of having a baby sister and what it means for her relationship with her parents and for her life in general.  Thankfully, Lucy still continues to have nothing but love for Emma but instead has chosen to take her frustrations out on Will and I with continued sleeplessness that results in crabbiness.  She also continues to have anxiety about many things and new to the list this month are lawnmowers and thunderstorms.  She screamed an entire day this past month when we had severe weather that lasted from morning to night.  In the beginning I was understanding, but by dinner time I was shaking my fists at the clouds and less than patient with Lucy.  One of the things that has helped me to keep my perspective is listening to seasoned moms with grown kids talk about how much they miss the days when their children were small.  Being in the trenches, my mind is mostly occupied with survival and it can be easy to lose sight of those tender little moments sprinkled into the craziness. 

The other day we were at my parents house and I was busy with my mom at the computer when Lucy ran in the house with my sister and exclaimed in the most excited voice you have ever heard: "Mama!  It's RAINING mama, it's RAINING!!"  My mom practically ate up the excitement that Lucy had over the fact that it was raining and had I not seen my mom's reaction to Lucy's exclamation, I wouldn't have paid attention to it any more than if you had told me it was raining.  I mean, it had in fact rained every single day in Michigan for the last month, so it wasn't really news to me.  But my mom saw this message from Lucy as so much more than a statement of the obvious.  It made her miss the days when her kids would come to her with messages about seemingly the most mundane things but present them to their beloved Mama as the most exciting thing to happen since Christmas.  The pure innocence and joy of living life in the moment is not something that we tend to keep as we grow closer and closer to adulthood.  And it had not occurred to me until this point that Lucy would outgrow this stage and I too would miss it.

As if to drive home this point even further, that same week I was watching one of my favorite sitcoms with Will.  On the show, a mom with three kids was crying about the fact that their daughter who was graduating middle school no longer ran to greet her parents when they came home from work.  That stopped my heart for a second.  Up until that moment, I had completely taken for granted Lucy's happiness to see Will or I.  When we pull in the driveway, Lucy runs to the window as soon as she hears our car, stands on her tiptoes and practically shakes with excitement while yelling our name.  And when we do walk in the house, she runs into our arms and gives the biggest hug while telling us excitedly about whatever it is she is thinking of that moment.  Someday this will stop and Lucy will sit in her room and care less when we arrive.  Yup, the universe has gotten together this past month and has gently relayed a message from God to treasure these moments.

So here is my treasure chest of Lucy moments from the last month:

Watching Lucy experience the joy of being with friends.  She is really starting to play with her friends as opposed to just playing next to them.  When on the playground, I overheard her shyly say to a girl a little bit bigger than her: "Emma.  Emma.  Emma.  Baby sister name Emma." as she looked up at the girl.  The girl interpreted this to mean that Lucy's name was Emma, but at least Lucy was putting herself out there!  Lucy seems to forget her worries when playing with her friends, and goes back to the old Lucy we remember which is comforting for us to see.  Here she is below with some of her closest friends - Katherine, Killian and Chloe in the first picture, Aeden in the next picture and Emily and Kayla in the third picture.

Holding both of my girls at the same time.  Lucy loves playing baby and being swaddled just like Emma.  Here I am below holding both of my babies on earth, with a heart even more full than my arms.

Exploring the great outdoors with Lucy.  Will and I have always loved being outdoors together, and have spent much of our relationship enjoying outdoor activities.  Outside has become even more exciting when watching it through our two-year old's eyes.  Here Lucy is below on the playground of our favorite hometown park.

We have an interesting family of ducks living near our house, and Lucy loves chasing them.  She hasn't caught them yet, but she has gotten really close.  You can't really tell from this picture, but the duck family consists of two males and one female.  Either that is one lucky lady duck, or as one of my friends wryly pointed out, the third wheel duck is probably their grown son who won't move out.

Here is Lucy and Will watching some ducks at the above mentioned park near our house.

Listening to Lucy's ever widening vocabulary.  Some of my favorite phrases from this month include:

• "I like this house." While driving Will and I tend to discuss various houses we see and comment on what we like and don't like.  Lucy picked up on this habit last month and has joined in on the conversation.  She now frequently points to random houses and tells us what she likes about them.
• "Bulldozers!  Backhoes!  Dump trucks!"  This is shouted multiple times from the back seat of our car as it is road work season in Michigan.  Lucy is fascinated by this heavy machinery and even asked the librarian all by herself last week for help finding the bulldozer-dump-truck-backhoe section of the library.  We currently have the entire section on loan.
• "You still there Mama?"  Lucy will ask this multiple times during a phone conversation with her.
• "Hey, Mom?"  A glimpse at big kid talk I think.
• "Stop it!"  Yikes.
• "Bye one two Grandmas!"  She said this as we left my parents house when visiting my mom and my grandma.  She also likes to point out at various times "Look mom!  One two babies!" referring to herself and Emma together on the bed, together on the floor, together in the car, etc.
• "God bless all those grandparents."  When saying her prayers she is sure to make sure her many grandparents are all covered with blessings.  She is quite a blessed little girl with five great grandparents and four grandparents.
• "A boppy, mom!  A boppy!"  Let me explain this one.  As you might know from previous posts, a boppy is the u-shaped pillow that supports your arms when holding a baby.  Lucy told me this after she pooped and I had no idea what she was talking about until I peaked into the toilet and sure enough, she was right!  It was shaped like a boppy!
• "Back door, front door, window."  Lucy describing the house she made out of her cut up toast pieces.  She loves playing with her food and makes the most creative messes.  She would sit at the table for hours if I let her, and I often times find myself bribing her to get down so we can move on with our day.
• Lucy loves singing Frosty the Snowman: "Frosty the snowman was a happy soul, with a corn pop nose and a button mouth and two eyes made out of coal!"
• "Bye Bye Miss American Pie."  When I was leaving the other day, she waved goodbye and said this to me.
• And finally, the other day when I was trying to get her dressed in the morning I told her to "Turn around." and she responded with "Bright Eyes."

Here Lucy is below, making art with her food.

Some people have labeled the stage Lucy is now entering as the Terrible Twos.  My mom has always called them the Terrific Twos.  I am going to focus on my newly created label, the Treasured Twos and I hope that keeps my perspective as we charter these exciting and sometimes choppy waters!