Let me never forget

There are moments I want to freeze in time forever.  Moments I pray I never, ever, ever forget.  Moments that fill my heart and make me smile no matter what the circumstance (or cry if it's that kind of a day). 

One of these moments is right before Arianna goes to bed at night.  She's all bathed and smells amazing, in her little jammies and sleep sack. I nurse her and she is mostly asleep.  As soon as I stand to put her in her crib, she comes to a little, so I cradle her up so we are cheek to cheek.  I whisper to her how much I love her, what a good girl she is, how special she is to me, tell her I'll see her in the morning, and that I love her so much one more time.  She stays so still, touches my face, and I even caught a peek one time and she was smiling with her eyes closed...like she was soaking in it as much as I was. 

Another time is when I nap with Josiah.  I nap with him almost everyday as I work nights and can pretty much always use a nap!  He lays down next to me and I watch his sweet eyes and mischievous smile as he starts to squirm a little before he sleeps. As he calms down and gets ready to sleep, he just says "mama, fingers", and I give him a finger from each hand to squeeze onto.  He holds my fingers tight as he drifts off to napland.  Sometimes I fall asleep that way too, waking later to remember that was just to help him fall asleep.  Occasionally I'll catch him wake up a little, look over and see I'm napping there too, so he lays back down and falls asleep.  I love watching the peace of sleep come over him, cherishing the finger holds, as someday this will be only a memory. He is my sweet, sweet boy. 

I am blessed.  So very, very blessed to be the momma to these to little ones.

December 2012

The joy of siblings.  Josiah is so in love with Arianna and cannot wait to play with her.  He tries, oh yes, he tries to play with her, but so far she is pretty unexciting.  It is sweet to see them together.  How I pray for their relationship to always be close and trusting and loving. 
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Josiah and I got a gingerbread train to make this year.  Try as I might, it looked nothing like the box, but we had fun decorating it (once I got over the fact that it was impossible to make it perfect).  Josiah especially loved trying out the candy and frosting.

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Josiah has grown and developed in such incredible ways.  His language is beginning to explode, both in English and Spanish, and he loves pretty much any activity he's presented with.  I love watching him process things and can almost see his mind taking it all in.
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We brought out the exersaucer for Arianna which she wasn't too thrilled with yet.  Thrilled though, would be Josiah.  He just HAD to get in there and thought that was truly the best thing ever.  While Arianna's feet didn't even reach the bottom, Josiah could practically kneel on it.
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A friend from when I lived in DC sent me this little outfit for Josiah...so we had to pull it out for Arianna as well.  Sure makes Josiah look skinny and little, although she had a little over a month on him at the time!
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And so the difficulties of trying to get a good picture of both kids continues!  We manage one every now and then but Josiah lasts about 3 seconds and is done.  Christmas pictures were a must though, especially Christmas morning in their jammies and before we went to church

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We had a good Christmas filled with family and naps.  We got Josiah a guitar this year, to add to his musical collection.  He loves it and continues to play it all the time (2nd only to his drums)

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I will never get over the peace of watching my babies sleep.  I could stand next to their cribs forever and just look at their sweet little faces.  I think Josiahs bear even has a smile from the cuddles he gets all night.  I love to just stand there and dream about their futures, their lives, pray over them as they have so much ahead and unseen.  It is a special place to be their momma.
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We took Josiah and Arianna bowling for the first time and although Arianna wasn't that excited about it yet, Josiah LOVED it!  The had a special bar that sends the ball right down the lane to knock all the pins over, so he got more strikes then either of us!  He continues to ask us if we can go again!
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If nothing else, Josiah is good for a laugh.  He is constantly up to something, always drumming and trying new things.  He never ceases to amaze us!

Zoo lights

This year we also went to see the Zoo Lights early on with our neighbors.  We parked right up front and had not lines or anything to get in.  It was a perfect night, just a little cold.  The train was my favorite part...we missed that last year because of the line.  Josiah loved the lights and seeing the "animals" at the zoo.

Santa

Last year we didn't get to see Santa because the lines were too long by the time we went.  So this year, we went before December even rolled around!  I mean, really, who knows the difference?  The kids did surprisingly well, no tears or fusses or anything.  And we got some pretty cute pictures.

Retirement

My dad retired in November and we had a little surprise dinner celebration for him.  My brother and his family flew up from California as a surprise and we all met at Riverview for dinner.  It was a fun weekend to be together and can't actually believe that my dad won't be going to work anymore!!  A whole new way of life is ahead for them!

Birthday Boy

Somehow two years have passed since our sweet little baby boy was born!  What an amazing two years of learning, growing, laughing, changing, and having fun with this amazing kid! 

He got a drum set for his birthday.  Yes, somehow we agreed to letting my parents get him this set.  He has a crazy obsession for drums and so we went ahead with it.  I won't brag about my kid or anything, but he kinda knows what he's doing with it too!  He loves drumming along and then, "ting", the little cymbal.  Sometimes it's not so little of a sound, but he does really well.  He's learning that there are times when the baby is sleeping that he doesn't get to play and so he'll just tap his sticks on the floor instead! 

We celebrated his 2nd birthday with family and a few friends.  My grandma made him a tractor cake which he loved with his whole heart.  As soon as we finished singing "Happy Birthday" he pulled off the tractor, licked it clean, and started playing!  Happy Birthday, sweet boy!!

Growing!

I loved my baby dolls when I was little and am so excited to have a real, live baby doll that is my daughter!!  I kind of LOVE dressing her up, thinking about her outfit, coordinating her hair bows...it's fun having a little girl!

This top picture never fails to make me laugh.  All was well with Josiah holding Arianna...until the BEAR hug!  Just check out her eyes!  And her smile always comes easily and fills my little heart!  The bottom picture was of her amazing outfit after we went shopping one day.  I forgot to throw in an extra outfit, she had a poo accident, and all she could wear home was Josiah's sweater.  Oh well, it was almost my sweater so at least it fit a bit better!

Dedication

We had the privilege of dedicating our kids at church. Since we don't do baby baptism (believing that baptism is a personal choice to make when older) we, as parents, are dedicating our little ones to God.  That means a lot in my book.  It means that I'm trusing that God has gifted us these two treasures for whatever amount of time that is. It means I can rest easy, knowing that God holds and loves my babies even more that I do (is that possible??!!).  It means that we are promising to raise our kids in God's path, praying over them all the time, bringing them up to be God-fearing, God-loving, God-following children.  So it was great to do that with our church family, hoping they will hold us accountable to all those things and help us love on our little ones too.

Little Helpers

 

We have our fair share of little helpers around the house!  Josiah LOVES tagging along to any activity, especially if it's outside or using grown up tools!  He really wanted to be outside with Ariel the other day, but Ariel had to get the lawn mowed...so I tossed them the backpack!  Josiah thought it was the best thing ever and I'm afraid I may have started a new habit for the Springtime.

 

I love that Arianna can be in the Bumbo chair now.  I put her near me when I'm cooking (but not TOO near) and tell her all about what we're making.  I can't wait to continue watching her grow by my side, talking and cooking.  I might just be daydreaming about it, but I look forward to what a momma-daughter realtionship will be for us. 

October recap

Somehow it became October.  Arianna was growing so fast...and I couldn't find the pause button!

We made it to the pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin.  Of course, the little wheelbarrows and animals and tractors were WAY more exctiting to Josiah though.

He has a huge obsession with tractors.  He was thrilled to be able to get on some tractors and pretend to drive around. 

We were headed to the Dominican Republic over Halloween so we made sure to get some pictures of the kids in their costumes.  Josiah was less than loving his tiger costume on and Arianna didn't know what was happening cause she slept through it.  Besides all that, we got a few pictures.

Remember me saying how hard it was to get both kids to be happy and posed for a picture together??  Here is proof of yet one more failed photo shoot!

And so we finished out October as we woked out our daily patterns of life.  How great it was to feel like I was on top of things and new what I was finally doing rather than trial and error!

September recap

The most impossible photo shoot is to get a 2 year old and 2 week old to cooperate at the same time!  We did the best we could and occasionally got one to work out!

Josiah continued to do well with Arianna.  We tried doing things that were special for him.  He had so much fun painting all over a paper left over from our photo shoot for Arianna's newborn pics.  He loved painting himself more than the paper, but it was a fun activity and he continued playing with it for the next few days!

Arianna continued being the dream baby.  Once the pain of breastfeeding subsided, we got into a great rhythm of sleeping/eating/playing.  Breastfeeding is again one of my favorite things times with Arianna.  It's something that only the two of us get to share and no matter who else has her, if she's hungry...she always gets to come to me!  It was super painful the first few weeks but thanks to some gel pads and biding my time, we got things all worked out. 

Much to my denial, my little man needed his first haircut.  His sweet curls had to go as it was getting a little out of control. Ariel tried with the clippers but his baby fine hair wouldn't cut well, so we moved onto the scissors.  He didn't even seem to notice we were cutting it!  He watched some Baby Einstein and ate cereal while we said goodbye to his baby locks.  Well, kind of goodbye because it might be in a ziplock in his baby book now!

Josiah started really getting into his little sister.  He loved helping her do things like bathe and diaper changes and important things like teaching her how to call grandma.

We continued to see Josiah fall in love with drums to a crazy extent.  He goes to a music class weekly where there are songs and dancing and an instrument time.  He has loved it and grown so much through it all.  It'll be interesting to see what his musical side turns into as he grows.

We took advantage of a nice afternoon to show Arianna Multnomah Falls for the first time.  She was truly thrilled.  She slept most of the time!  We enjoyed going out as a family of four and learning how it all works!

There is almost nothing sweeter than watching a sleeping baby.  They get such an amazing glow while they're sleeping that a camera just can't quite capture.  I could watch this little princess sleep anytime!!

August recap

Arianna's first days home were filled with lots of sleeping, eating, and adjusting to a new way of life.  She was such a perfect little baby, waking just a few times at night to eat, only occasionally wanting to play at 5 a.m.

She had her first check up and came through with shining colors. Josiah loved seeing the doctor check her and use all the "tools" he has in his play set.

Josiah has been an amazing big brother.   I anticipated the change to be much harder and was prepared for the worst.  He had a few moments, don't get me wrong, but it went well overall.  We tried to keep life as normal as possible for him.  The hardest part for me was not being able to pick him up or run around with him because of the c/section. 

We did eventually fall into a routine of new life.  It was harder than I thought it would be going from 1 to 2 kiddos.  Blessed beyond words, yes, but difficult for me to figure out how to do it right!  I always felt like I was neglecting either child when I spent time with one of them.  Eventually I came to realize that it was ok to spend time with one while the other slept or played alone.  I got over my guilt and realized things are going to roll a whole new way with 2 kids.  Josiah learned how to read books with me while I nurse Arianna.  Arianna loved her swing so I could focus my attention on Josiah.  I learned to balance both and we fell into step.

Sleep training

Second kids are a funny thing.  I mean, the first kid kinda becomes a trial/error project and the second kid kinda just fits into what the first kid is already doing.  Case in point:  pediatrician said it's time to start putting Arianna to bed on her own...putting her down when she is drowsy and letting her fall asleep on her own.  The idea being that she learns to put herself back to sleep unassisted in the middle of the night.  Now, this was traumatizing with Josiah.  Truly heartbreaking and well, let's be honest, I cried everytime I tried.  In the end we rocked, cuddled, breastfed, and stayed by his side until he was asleep (and well, still do!)  With Arianna, she's been doing this from the start.  Not that I don't want to hold her until she falls asleep...I wish I could!!  It's just that our routine doesn't allow for that, I don't have enough hands (although most days I wish I was an octopus!).

Our nightime routine is bath, jammies, fruit/veg pack, songs.  I sing songs to the kiddos and Josiah generally falls asleep during that time, so I've started putting Ari in the bouncy chair next to us cause I'm sort of stuck when they both fall asleep on me.  So by the time songs are done, Josiah is asleep, and I come back for her after laying Josiah down..she's asleep!  Sometimes she wakes up in the transfer from bouncy chair to our room (she sleeps in a co-sleeper in the bed w/us for now), but then I'll lay her down and she does it again.  No trauma to momma.  No tears.  Just simple kisses and she's asleep.  Incredible.  Why did it have to be so stressful the first time around?  I tried so hard to "do it right" and in the end felt like a failure!  Live and learn, that's what it's all about I think. 

Bathtime help

After a great dinner from my mom, Arianna had her first real home bath.  Josiah was a willing and excited helper.  He especially liked soaping her up!  She'll hate me for letting him do this someday (and photographing it!) but he was so proud to be a part of it!  I quickly saw that life had changed, the whole routine of things, the center of attention, the amount of hands I was going to need...but I knew we'd learn along the way.  How awesome it was to tuck into our own bed knowing we had such an adventure ahead of us!

Headed home

The moment finally came when we got to load up and drive home with two little ones!  It was surreal, yet felt so natural all at the same time.  Ariel has never driven so carefully in his life.  We were so thankful to be together and start to figure out what the new normal looked like!

Arianna's 2nd Day

 

Day 2 brought more joy as we settled into the reality that this  perfect baby girl was really ours!  We had a quiet morning of cuddling and nursing and cuddling some more.

 

 

We then moved rooms to the new hospital because of the construction changes that were happening in postpartum.  It was on the 7th floor and we had the corner "suite" thanks to help of some friends that made it all happen!  Josiah especially loved his great view of the Lifeflight helicoptors coming and going. 

 

 

We loved our new room and welcomed more visitors throughout the day, excited to meet Arianna.  Ariel was on the phone to family and friends in the Dominican Republic bragging about his beautiful daughter!

 

 

The best view in our new room was at night overlooking Portland.  If only it were under different circumstances, we would have loved to stay even longer!  We couldn't wait to get back to our home the next day though and begin life together as a family of four.

Finishing out her happy birth day

 

I continued recovery in labor and delivery while Arianna nursed like a champion and we all got to have a cuddle.  I was thankful to be feeling so well and thanks to a great team, no pain at all!

 

 

We then moved to our postpartum room which was fully decorated by the awesome labor and delivery girls.  They all took such good care of me.  Arianna got her first bath (which she didn't love) and we got to start dressing up or real life baby doll!

 

 

Lots of visitors came to meet and love on the new little girl.  Josiah was proud to show off and have some more entertainment!

 

 

Ariel and I finished the day with a slow but steady walk with our new baby girl.  What an amazing day!