After bringing Emma home from the hospital, we had a wonderful two weeks with Will home from work with us. Honestly, it felt more like a vacation than the Spring Break Will had earlier that month, as I was miserably pregnant then and we still were trying to get ready for Emma's arrival with lots of things to check off our to-do lists. The first two weeks of Emma's life were relaxed and special. It was mainly just the four of us, learning how to be a family and spending time together. We also had some great holidays sprinkled in there - Easter and Lucy's 2nd birthday. Either way, it was nice to be able to just sit back and relax as a family. I dreaded Will's arrival back to work, but yet looked forward to starting the learning curve of balancing two children on my own.
Emma has been an easy baby so far, but the past month has definitely had a steep learning curve for me once Will went back to work. My day is spent ensuring that everyone's needs are being met in a timely fashion with as little crying as possible. Some days it seems like someone is always crying, whether it be Emma, Lucy, both of them, or even all three of us. I repeat as a mantra over and over to myself and sometimes out loud: "I am only one person. I am doing the best I can. I am only one person. I am doing the best I can."
Yup, when Emma isn't being fed, changed or held, she can usually be found in her bouncer. As I write this post, she is sleeping in her bouncer next to my chair with the baby monitor next to her relaying the white noise that is currently playing upstairs for Lucy's nap. I am getting a two for one nap right now, which is priceless. Emma's easy going personality allows me to most times set her down sleepy in her bouncer, tightly swaddled and she will nod off on her own as long as there is a constant white noise playing in the background. This could be from the shower, the vacuum, or the white noise CD I purchased shortly before her birth. I wish I had known these tactics for Lucy's infancy. We also feel no guilt this time around for giving Emma a pacifier, as we know from our experience with Lucy that the benefits far outweigh the work involved in breaking the habit later.
Here Emma is being coached by Lucy on how to do "tummy time".
It has been so cold this spring, that this is typically what Emma has to wear when we go for a walk. I put her in a snow suit, snuggle her up in a baby carrier close to my chest and then zip us both up into a maternity jacket of mine. It is like I am still pregnant with her, except she sits up higher, and I can kiss the top of her head. I love, love, love carrying her this way.
Here Emma is below cuddling with her Grandma Hines.
Here Will is, talking with Emma. As a Daddy's Girl myself, it makes me smile to know that my daughters will also get to be Daddy's Girls.
Lucy requested Elmo cupcakes for her birthday, and helped me decorate them. She even added extra special flavoring to some of the cupcakes as you can see in the below picture. Apparently the guy behind the camera knew this was going on before I did, but didn't seem overly concerned by it. 
When I realized that Lucy was methodically licking the tops of each cupcake, I was less than kind to the birthday girl. The camera man then captured Lucy's reaction to the lecture in the picture below. To our family that ate the Elmo cupcakes this past Saturday - we served you the ones that Lucy didn't lick - I promise!
Will made a growth chart out of oak that we measure each of our children's birth lengths and then their heights at each birthday. Lucy measured at 33 inches tall.
Here Lucy is with her Mama and baby sister enjoying cupcakes and ice cream on her birthday.
Here Lucy is again, this time on Saturday, enjoying cupcakes and ice cream next to her baby sister.
And just when we thought we owned every kind of Elmo toy ever made, Uncle Joe went and got Lucy the original Tickle Me Elmo. You shouldn't have, Uncle Joe. But Lucy sure loves it!
As I've mentioned in previous posts, Lucy loves to draw and color. If I need to make a phone call, I take advantage of this interest in her and set her up at the table with crayons and paper. I was actually sitting right next to Lucy during a phone call to Lucy's Uncle Joe, when I realized too late that someone had accidentally put markers in the crayon bin. Amazingly enough, all the marker washed off except the orange so I only had a little explaining to do when Will came home from work. It also took everything in me NOT to even out the black moustache Lucy had started on her face. And sadly, the moment I realized what Lucy had done was when Lucy asked me for a "sipper". What the picture below doesn't show is that she had in fact sucked on the black marker and she wanted a drink of water to get the taste out of her mouth. And the Mother of the Year Award goes to.... not me!
Here's my almost two year old in her new double stroller, ready for a walk.
Obviously Emma isn't quite one yet this Easter, but we gave her a purple crayon to try marking her own egg so she wouldn't feel left out. As younger siblings ourselves, Will and I have a keen awareness of how it feels to want to do what your older sibling is doing.
Lucy only broke one egg (out of a dozen), and thoroughly enjoyed 'dropping' the eggs into the different cups of dye.
As you all know by now, I am a big fan of writing out my family's names as it is the only way I can see our family together on earth. Our Easter eggs were no eggception!
After church on Sunday, we headed to the cemetery to visit Luke and drop off an Easter egg for him - a tradition we've done since we lost Luke. It was also the first day warm enough to bring Emma outside and get a picture of her little feet next to Luke's on his headstone - a tradition we started after Lucy was born. When we got to the cemetery, Lucy got out of the car and I overheard her saying "Lukey, are you? Lukey, are you?" as she made her way to his grave. This near about broke Will's and my heart, as we explained to Lucy that we were just going to place the plastic blue egg with a love note in it on his grave, not actually give it to Lukey, as Lukey is in heaven. She didn't say anything to this, but then changed her chattering at Luke's grave to, "I love you, Lukey. Miss you. Love you." 
Sadly, this is as close as my three children will ever physically be on earth. Will and I definitely choked up, as we stood there watching Lucy run around in the grass and the sun shine on Emma's sleeping face. As Lucy's dress blew in the breeze and we listened to her happy giggles as she ran around from stone to stone we couldn't help but imagine what it would be like with Luke running next to his sister, and how it would feel to watch all three of our children enjoy Easter festivities together. I like to think that Lucy's carefree happiness in the open grass and warm temperatures was a direct reflection of Luke's happiness in heaven. Lucy's innocent joy in the simple pleasures of life were not diluted by the fact that we were at a cemetery visiting a brother she would never play with on earth. Lucy's ability to embrace the moment for exactly what it was and nothing more was inspiring and we knew at that moment that Luke was enjoying Easter in much the same way. So we did a family hug, dried our tears, watched Lucy rob several graves of flags, angel statues and flowers, and then headed home (after of course putting back all of the mementos to their rightful graves).
Once home from the cemetery, we enjoyed another new family tradition - an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. It was a ton of fun watching Lucy hunt for eggs and we couldn't help but imagine next year with Emma taking her first couple of toddles, looking for eggs with Lucy.
Here Emma is below, getting her hair combed after her first bath. Will is very proud of the fact that she has hair to be combed, and that it is the same color as my hair.
Here Emma is sucking on her hands, which she has been doing since the moment she was born. The nurses told me this is good and bad - good, because it means that Emma has already found a way to self-soothe while in 
Emma was very alert right after her birth, and gazed into my eyes like she has known me for eternity. It is amazing how even though I met Emma for the first time face to face, I already knew and loved so much about her.
The below picture I will title: Proud Parents. Need I say more?
Proud daddy with his girls.
The day we were discharged from the 
Here are our two girls, going home to make our dream home even more of a dream come true. As we turned onto our street, Lucy reached over to her baby sister and told her the name of our street. Good to know, big sister, good to know.
Lucy also says "sorry" at the appropriate times, and even uses it in her imaginary play with her stuffed animals and dolls. After we sneeze she now tells us "BLESS YOU!" extremely loud and proud which makes us want to sneeze again just to hear it. When asking for something from Will or I she will make her request and then add, "okay?" at the end of it which definitely softens the multiple demands she makes on us throughout the day. And when we ask her a question, she will seriously reply, "um, thinking..." And thinking she has been. She can now count to 10 without missing a number, and can name basic colors. She will also tell you that her favorite color is orange. She even will go so far as to say that when she is older, she would like an orange bra! This totally caught me off guard and speechless. Even better is that she keeps bringing it up. Where she got this idea, I really don't know. Not thinking, I told her that when she is as old as her Aunt Jane, she can have an orange bra. Please don't hate me Aunt Jane, but now when she repeatedly refers to the orange bra, she also refers to Aunt Jane! In retrospect, I should have left Aunt Jane completely out of it. She has also become very animated in her speech and uses a lot of hand gestures, finger pointing and pushes her lips out while she talks loudly in very excited tones. She loves telling me about how her and Will went to the car wash the other day. "Car wash, mama. LOUD! Dada paid money. People push button on. LOUD!! Loud, mama. Curtains washed car, mama. Car dry and clean, mama! LOUD!" Lucy has been impatiently awaiting spring, along with the rest of us. I have been reading her books about the seasons and have explained to her that Emma will be born in the spring, and that Lucy's birthday is also in the spring. Lucy spotted the porch swing in the garage throughout the winter, and when she asked if we could swing on it, we would reply "in the spring." Well, the first day of Spring arrived and we asked if she wanted to go the playground to celebrate Spring. She answered, "No, mama. Emma coming today. Dada hang porch swing." Needless to say, Emma has still not arrived yet and our balmy spring temperatures have been replaced with more ice and snow. When Lucy saw the snow that fell after the first day of spring, she looked out the window, shook her finger and yelled, "NO SNOW! Spring, where are you?" Will did hang the porch swing though! 
When emotionally upset, Lucy will now tell me, "My eyes are crying, mama." And when she is doing something she knows she shouldn't be, she will shout and shake her finger "Don't move a muscle!" The best is when she is shouting and pointing at me.
Lucy is very proud of her new car seat we purchased this past month and is super excited to have company in the backseat of our car once Emma arrives. Here she is testing out her new ride. She told me today while driving in the car that "Emma ride in old car seat. Emma's turn to cry." Oh, so that's why there were all those crying fits in the car the past two years? It was the car seat? Good to know.
Another exciting happening for Lucy this month was the replacement of her changing table with a new bookshelf for her toys and books that Will had promised to make her when she no longer wore diapers. Although we are not 100% accident free yet, she hasn't had a diaper on her bottom in almost two months so we thought it would be safe to say she won't from here on out. She is super proud of her new bookshelf, and loves to tell anyone visiting that she got it because she wears "No more DI-PEEEES!" Here she is below, in mid-spin.
Yup, this little girl continues to keep us on our toes with her personality. One thing can be said for sure - she is a girl who knows what she wants and doesn't want. Sometimes this is great and sometimes this is a huge challenge. We are learning to just go with it though, and try our best to not interfere with the unique personality that continues to unfold before our eyes.
I told Will the other night that I can still hardly believe that we get to have another one of these unique beings running around our house. I can't wait to find out what kind of personality Lucy's baby sister has and how she will fit into our family. I will leave you with this picture, which pretty much sums up the unexpected smiles that happen here lately with an almost two year old running around.
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