8 Weeks Old

This adorable little man is eight weeks old. Eight weeks have passed since he was born. I'm still marveling that time can pass so quickly and am trying to soak in as much of him as I can in the four short weeks I have left at home. I can't seem to get enough of him and I think it's partly because I've done this before and I know how fast time passes and how much I'm going to miss him once I'm back at work. I know my heart will ache and my arms will long to hold him so for now I'm going to hold him a bit more and squeeze him and kiss him whenever I want because right now he's all mine and I'm his.

At this point we can practically set our clocks by his schedule. He almost always wakes up at 4:40 am to eat. Every morning. 4:40 rolls around and he starts grunting. Eh, eh, eh. And then again around 6:00 am. Eat night is different and some nights he wakes up every few hours, some nights he sleeps for over five hours, but every morning when 4:40 comes he wakes up. No matter what.

I'm definitely tired like I was after the girls were born and the exhaustion starts to hit hard around dinner time, but in spite of all of that I still don't nap during the day. Instead I snuggle with my little man or clean or walk the mall. I'm sure I'll regret not napping once I'm back at work, but I kind of prefer to stay on this schedule.

And this little man who I spend all of my time with is growing like a weed. He's getting bigger and longer and smiles more and is even cooing like he's about to laugh. He's still not a huge fan of tummy time and tolerates it, but prefers to have his sisters by his side. I guess he figures if he's got to do it so do they. Lucky for him they think it's a privilege to do tummy time with him.


This morning I propped him up on the Boppy for some assisted tummy time and he did a pretty good job. Probably from all the time he spends cuddled up on our chests. Stasa gets overly excited when he lifts his head and yells "he's lifting hes head!" (side note: We correct her constantly, but she still says hes instead of his.)



He was so proud of himself and was in such a good morning today. All smiles and coos and sunshine.


This happy guy makes my day every day. I say it again and again, but Tommy is our most relaxed baby. It's like he knows that we need a happy easy baby. The girls require so much of our time right now and we won't hear a peep out of him unless he's hungry or wet. Otherwise he's pretty content to just watch the chaos unfold around him. I hope this is his permanent personality. We will definitely need to find his voice when dealing with his sisters though because those girls, well those girls are forces of nature.

Redefining luxury

**Sleeping in is a thing of the past. If we sleep past 7:00 am we consider ourselves lucky.
**If I jump in the shower before 6:00 am or after 8:00 pm, I'm able to enjoy a solo shower. Showering during nap time is like playing Russian roulette. Since both upstairs baths share a wall with Stasa's room (yeah yeah, *excellent* planning on my part), a nap time bathing may or may not wake her up. And you know her. Every bath is *her* bath.
**When we make it through an entire meal without either of us having to hold Lexi or listen to Stasa whining, it's like a fine dining experience.
**There are a few occasions when we're able to watch a non-Nickelodeon show without interruption. During the day. While the kids are awake.

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I started this list over the weekend, but then took a break because being able to work on my laptop without sticky fingers touching my screen is next to impossible. So now I've totally lost my train of thought up there. On to something else!

Stasa is all about tummy time these days. Yes, you read that right. Stasa, the almost-three-year-old is forever doing tummy time. With Lexi. With her baby. With her bear. And she tries to make us do tummy time, too. "Mommy, tummatime on the floor!"



I just realized how dirty her baby is...guess it's time for a bath!

Lexi is army crawling and rolling all over the place now and gets stuck in strange places. The other day I walked out of the room for a few seconds to grab something and when I came back, she was happily laying with her arm stuck under the TV stand. 

Pretty much everyone in our family loves our iPads. Stasa is so adept at using them and manages to find the most random videos on YouTube. And since she always watches videos under my YouTube account, my "favorites" list makes me look like a crazy person (which I admit, I am). I'm not sure which I shake my head at more, The Annoying Orange, Chocolate Rain, or Thomas Climbing the Slide.

OMG I ALMOST HAD TO SURRENDER MY HOUSE

I was minding my own business (I know, so unusual for me, but whatever) and was making myself a cup of tea since I have a bad cough. I was joking around with Tom while walking over to the pantry to get a tea bag and then all of a sudden I saw a huge giant monster of a spider on my floor. Okay, I totally admit that I'm a bit of a drama queen and my fear of spiders can cause me to exaggerate their size, but seriously, this spider was so huge if Tom weren't around to kill it, I would have packed up and let the spider keep the house.

Tom thought I was overreacting until he went in the kitchen to kill the spider and then saw the beast. I've never seen a spider that large. It was like the size of a tarantula, but scarier and I'm pretty sure it was carrying knives. Apparently I'm supposed to calm down know since the spider is dead. Allegedly.

Let's try and forget about how I almost lost my life tonight and talk about something else, shall we? Lexi stayed home with me today since she had a fever this morning (she's fine now, BTW). She was in a pretty good mood most of the day, although a bit clingy, and had a blast doing tummy time. No, seriously, she loved it. See?


We managed to eat early tonight and had enough time to walk to the pool and play for awhile before it closed. Water day at school + pool time = bath night for everyone. We put Lexi in the tub with Stasa and they both loved it, even though they look shell shocked in this pic (I think it's because I was trying to get them to smile and they didn't want me interrupting play time).




Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go spider proof my house. Or at the very least find a way to guarantee they won't get in my bedroom. ::sigh:: I don't anticipate sleeping well tonight.

Just another evening in Casa de Crazy

Halloween isn't limited to October.




Everyone loves a little tummy time action around here.

When she smiles

After having a toddler for so long, you kind of forget what it's like to have an infant again. I'm so used to Stasa playing and interacting with me and being animated. You don't really get much interaction with an infant. Lexi spends the majority of the day sleeping, crying, eating, or pooping, with a bit of tummy time and a lot of cuddling time thrown in.

Lately though she's been staying awake a bit longer during the day and is generally happy to just chill out next to me. I love that she smiles a lot now and makes cute little coos every now and then. It's so hard to put her down when she's being so cute and I end up holding her most of the day.

Tummy time in our house

I try to get Lexi to do tummy time at least once a day and she also gets tons of modified tummy time when she's on our chests. She's getting stronger and stronger every day and was able to hold her head up high for a few times during this morning's tummy time.




And sometimes she just isn't in the mood for tummy time and decides to end it on her own.


Of course if we're doing anything on the playmat when Stasa's around, she insists on being part of it. Every time.

Videos Galore!

There are a ton of videos in this post for 2 reasons. 1. I've been lazy about uploading them and 2. I kept trying to capture all of the cool things she's doing now (sitting up, rocking on all fours, planking...). Enjoy!

Afternoon playtime

Stasa had some play time with daddy when he got home from work today. Her current favorite thing to do is assisted standing. Look at those chubby thighs!

She's working on sitting up on her own and can manage for a few seconds. She can tripod really well on her own for long periods of time.

Here's her baby situp - she's got some strong abs.



Stasa LOVES mirrors - looking in them, eating them...

Playtime...sleep time

Stasa's picked up a new trick from her friend, Audrey: hand in mouth, other hand over the eyes, pass out.

Snoozing in the swing

Part of her 30 minute tummy time yesterday

"Mom, I'm working really hard here."

"What's that?"

She's starting to really enjoy the Bumbo

Playing with her playmat toys

Checking herself out in her mirror

A lazy afternoon

Stasa and I went over to Amy and Henry's today to take some pictures of Henry for my portfolio and for Amy and Charlie. Like an idiot, I deleted the pics from my memory card after uploading them to Amy's laptop, so I'll post them once she sends them on.

We spent a good amount of time outside today getting to know more of our neighbors. It's so so so pretty out and I really hope the weather man is wrong about the rain tomorrow (we have the photographer coming).

Stasa really enjoyed her afternoon tummy time and is starting to love seeing herself in a mirror.

Picture time

Here are some pictures from our mornings this week.

Stasa is ready to go to her first day of daycare. She was actually all smiles and coos, but kept putting on this serious face when I tried taking her picture. Stinker.

Day 2 of daycare and still happy in the morning (even though it's not showing). She took a chew toy with her this morning.


Evening tummy time! We got her a new tummy time mat last night and she really likes it. She was lifting her head all of the way up, but stopped before I could capture it. Here she is munching on her hands. So tasty.

More pictures

Tummy time!

Staring at herself in a mirror (it's under that green and red hanging toy)

The cat insisted on being in some of the pictures

Sleepy baby

Do I have a big butt?

Tiny hands