Leila is 3 Months Old!

Last week Leila turned 3 months old.  We didn't have a well baby visit, so I don't have any weight and height statistics, but I can tell that she's growing.  If I had to guess, I'd say that she probably weighs about 15 pounds, which is a bit more than Kendall weighed at the same age.

As you can tell from the picture, Leila is one happy baby.  She's now smiling all the time, and has started to laugh.  I've found that she's very ticklish under her armpits and that's the best way to get big belly laughs out of her.  She's also holding her head up very well now, and likes to be up looking at the world around her.  She now prefers to be carried in an upright position, and she's spent a little bit of time in the Bumbo chair.  She seems to enjoy being up with the rest of the family.  No rolling over yet, but she's grasping objects and reaching for toys as best she can.  She's also sleeping through the night now - she goes to bed around 8:30 or 9 p.m. and is up about 7 a.m.  I'm so thankful to have good sleepers!

Probably the neatest thing to watch is how she tries to interact with her big sister.  She absolutely LOVES Kendall, and stares at her to get her attention.  When Kendall talks to her or plays with her, she smiles just about as big as she can.

I'm heading back to work next week, and Leila will start in the Bambino Room at the school that Kendall attends.  I'm not thrilled about returning to work full time, but it's just the way it is right now.  I have really enjoyed my time off.  Leila is a great baby, and I couldn't have had a better maternity leave.

A Princess Turns 3

We wrapped up the holidays by celebrating Kendall's third birthday on January 6th.  We had a great dinner with Gram and Dude the night before her birthday, followed by a party at Playwerx on the big day.  We also celebrated again a week later when we visited California Adventure and had lunch with a handful of princesses.

Dinner with Family:

A new Snow White dress for the big trip to meet the princesses!

Birthday Party:

Playing with new presents!

California Adventure:

 

The neatest balloon animal (I mean princess) that I've ever seen!

Hard to believe that Kendall is now three, but it's also very obvious that she's left babyhood behind, and has now become a full-flegged little kid.  She'll choose to watch Spongebob Squarepants over Sesame Street, and she's discovered the world of princesses.

She is still one of the sweetest, most loving little girls that you'll ever meet, and her teachers at school often tell us how compassionate she is towards other kids in her class.  As any three year old, she's now pushing the envelope and questioning things in any way that she can.  On the flip side, she is learning new things as fast as she can.  We've been working recently to introduce her to the world of letters and reading, and she's working to make sure that we never leave home without our patience and whatever baby or other possession that she might have mentioned once an hour before we left the house.

She has a great vocabulary, and can express her needs and wants.  I'm constantly amazed with her memory, as she remembers songs that have been sung at school long after she learned them.  She's also got great problem solving skills, and loves puzzles and games.

She wants to do most things on her own, but sometimes still needs a bit of assistance when it comes to some tasks.  She's been potty trained for about 6 months now, and has recently started to get up on her own at night to use the bathroom.  We just need to get her to wake up enough to get her pants back on and get back in bed on her own!

Many days I'd love to freeze time, but I also love watching her grow.  She's changed so much in the past year, and I can't wait to see what the next year brings!

Ringing in the New Year

For the past 6 or 7 years (except for 2011), we've celebrated New Year's Eve with the same group of friends.  Before we all had kids, we went out to dinner and celebrated well into the morning hours.  Now that there are children involved, we've been celebrating at the Beld's house over potluck dinners and the midnight celebration that's live on the east coast.

This year was another great celebration, with a couple of additions to the group.  Leila and her new friend, Charlie McMahon, fit right in and hung in there with the big kids until it was time to head home.  We had great food and drinks, and even an impromptu Nutcracker performance from the kids.  Kendall isn't as into dance as some of the other girls, but she still got up and performed!

We had an amazing 2012, but we're all hoping that 2013 is even better!!

My girls on the last morning of 2012

All partied out.  Believe it or not, no one told Kendall how to pose.  She thought of this one all on her own.

Even Leila was up until midnight!!

Christmas 1 and Christmas 2

The holidays are always nuts around here.  With Kendall's birthday less than two weeks after Christmas, it seems like I'm constantly shopping and planning to make sure that everyone enjoys the two big events.  This year was especially crazy as we've been tending to a new baby, and we've been going non stop with holiday celebrations since she was born right before Halloween.  In addition, this year Uncle Sean and Aunt Jessica spent Christmas at her parent's house, which meant an extra Christmas celebration in between Christmas and Kendall's birthday.

So, here I am again, late with the posting of holiday photos.  

Don't get me wrong, I love this time of year.  The lights and the music, the cookies and fudge.  It really is my favorite time of year.  Kendall is now so excited about Santa and the holiday, and we had a great time with "Sparkles" our new elf friend.  So, I know I'm late, but here are some pictures from Christmas Day and Christmas Day Part II.  I can complain about it being crazy, but I don't want too long to pass before I remember what a great time we had.  We had a great Christmas morning at home, followed by a great afternoon and evening at Gram and Dude's house.  Kendall insisted on opening every single present under the tree, which meant that we spent about 2 hours opening gifts.  This new tradition continued at our second Christmas celebration which meant another hour of gift opening.  We're now inundated with princesses, pirates and a giant dollhouse.

Just look at these two little girls.  No matter how utterly exhausted I am by the time January 7th rolls around, I look back at pictures like this and smile.  How could I not enjoy this holiday season.

Leaving cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer...

Christmas morning...

Christmas afternoon and evening at Gram and Dude's...

Christmas with Uncle Sean and Aunt Jessica.  The theme was moustaches...

We hope that you had a wonderful holiday season as well!

Leila is 2 Months Old!

Since I missed my opportunity to post about Leila's one month milestones, I figured I'd combine the two months into one post.

At one month, Leila weighed 11 pounds, 5 ounces, and measured 21.5 inches long.

At her two month checkup, Leila weighed 13 pounds, 3 ounces, and measured 23 3/4 inches long.  91st percentile for height and 85th percentile for weight.

She's smiling and cooing as she should, and is happiest in the morning.  She's a great sleeper, and sleeps from about 10:30 p.m. to about 5:00 a.m.  She started doing this consistently around 6 weeks, which has been great for Dan and I.  We suspect that she may have a bit of a milk allergy like her sister did, so we're testing out some soy formula to see if it helps with the fussiness.  She's still a great eater though, and will let you know (with some loud, forceful cries) that mealtime is approaching.  So far, she's a happy baby, and has been pretty easy to take care of!

Leila's Newborn Photo Session

Like we did with our maternity photos, we splurged on a newborn photo session shortly after Leila was born.  We hired the wonderful Megan of Megan Ann Photography, who also was responsible for our maternity photos.  As with those photos, we absolutely love the pictures that she took.  She was able to capture the sweet moments that are often hard to remember when you're sleep deprived and overwhelmed.  I'm already so glad that we have the photos to look back on.

A Royal Halloween

Halloween was a big event at our house this year.  It was the first year that Kendall got to pick out her costume, the first year that she helped me decorate the house, and the first year that she really understood what the holiday had to offer.  And by that, I mean candy.

Kendall had talked for months about how she wanted to be a tiger, but when we got to the costume store and she saw the princess costumes, tiger was no longer in her vocabulary.  We tried on a few costumes, and let the store with a Sleeping Beauty costume (complete with tiara) and a magic wand.

In the weeks that led up to Halloween, we practiced the trick-or-treat routine, and reminded Kendall that the correct response after receiving candy was, "Thank You", and not, "Can I have more?".

The big day came, and Kendall was able to wear her costume to school!  She even celebrated with her friends at her classroom party.

Kendall's Rule of the Day: If you're going to dress like Sleeping Beauty, make sure that you carry your Sleeping Beauty doll with you, AND wear your Sleeping Beauty underwear.

Kendall and Miss Oly:

Kendall and Miss Jessica:

Leila was there too, even though she slept through most of the festivities!

We hope that you, your ghosts, and goblins (or princesses) had a wonderful Halloween as well!!