Being a Big Sister...

is a tough job!

S3 is adjusting very well to being a big sister to P2. It has been 5 busy weeks so far.

 Mimi left the morning after P2's arrival, but I didn't miss her for long. Five days later we flew to FL where she greeted us at the airport. I got to see Great Great Annie, Great Granny, Buddy and all the people at Mimi's work and eat grilled cheese sandwiches. I hear they are momma's favorite from Mimi's work.

I got to spend the weekend with my Papa and Grammie while daddy played softball. Then 5 of my cousins (Elli, James, Rachel, Matthew & Carolynne) all came to visit with Aunt Heather. Momma and Dada showed up and then Uncle Jeff arrived. It was a crazy full house at Papa's, but it was fun. My favorite toy at Papa and Grammie's house is the Lego Dog.

We took an exciting adventure to Tacoma to visit the Glass Museum, but realized it was closed the day we went there so instead I took a much needed nap in the car and Momma and Dada drove around Point Defiance. I think we will be going back there next Summer when the weather is nicer. Point Defiance is a HUGE park with walking trails and scenic over looks, a long driving path, a zoo and an aquarium.

I got to go on a Daddy date to Baskin Robbins last week. We got confetti birthday cake ice cream. 

Grammie got brave and watched me all by herself for a couple of hours this week. We had lots of fun playing with toys and I took a really good nap while I was there.

I am becoming a good communicator using signs and many words too! Here is what I know:
Words- momma, dada, mimi, up, down, more, all done, thank you, please, no, yeah, milk
Signs- flower, baby, dog, bird, milk, thank you, please, all done, more, eat
Sounds- dog, cat, pig, horse, bear, bird, duck, car, airplane, train

I'm also really good at following directions and I'm learning to get what I want. Daddy is such a sucker.

Here are some pictures to show you what I have been up to!

Sleeping like a sick Queen in the big bed in FL

Teaching Buddy how to wash the car

Teaching Buddy how to water the flowers

Petting the Gator

and the Cat

and the birdy

Throwing the baseball

At the Pumpkin Patch with Micah and all our friends from MOPs

Riding in my shopping cart?

Cousin Elli was super excited to meet my sister

Talking on the phone

Sisterly Love

Yummy! Watermelon

Please don't cry. I'm trying really hard to take good care of my little sister.

Eating my rice

We all love to watch Dora.

Swaddling my baby doll.

Swimming in the Bathtub

Making sure my sister is ok.

Giving her Loves

Taking a walk with Daddy. Aren't we cute with our hoods up and holding hands.

Is she asleep? What I can't touch her?

Telling her stories.

 

Daddy came to MOPs to help in the daycare. Thanks!

Her First 2 Weeks

P2 has had a very exciting and adventurous first 14 days.

 P2 Brand New

 Meeting my BIG sister

 Meeting my Mimi

 Meeting Grandma Tweety

 So Tiny in my HUGE car seat. Heading Home!

 Melissa brought us dinner when we got home. Thank You!

At 2 days old my doctor gave us permission to fly to Florida for Daddy's softball tournament and to visit Mommy's family.

 

Heading to the airport for my 1st big adventure. I'm going to Florida at 4 1/2 days old.

Great Granny, Mimi & Buddy came to visit us at the timeshare in Orlando where we stayed for the first 4 nights of our trip.

 Great Granny

 Great Granny, P2, Mommy, Daddy, S3, Mimi, Buddy in Orlando

 Jett & P2

One of our suite mates during our stay in Orlando for Daddy's softball tournament.

 Bradley & S3 aka Big Sister

Another of our suite mates in Orlando for Daddy's softball tournament.

 I thought I was going to get this big bed to myself.

 Instead I slept in the comfy crib.

For the last 2 nights of our trip we stayed at Mimi & Buddy's house.

 P2 & Buddy at Buddy & Mimi's house

 Mimi helped me wear this giant purple flower on my head on my last day in FL.

I was a great flier and really enjoyed all the sunshine and warm weather. Now we are back at home in Washington. I got to meet a lot more people at the Craven Farms Pumpkin Patch the morning after we returned home, but I was so sleepy I don't really remember any of their names or faces.

Giving and Caring

Friday's Child is Giving and Caring! We now have to beautiful daughters born on Friday's.

We are very happy to announce the arrival of our new big sister Samantha and her little sister Penny Ryanne. 

Penny Ryanne Boyle

Born: 9/16/2011 10:12 pm

Stats: 5 lb 11 oz 18 in

All 5 of us are doing well and glad to be home together tonight. 

Getting Ready for P2

As summer is coming to an end and I'm getting ready to go back to work we are also busy preparing for P2. She is due any time in the next 3 weeks! Here are some of the additions have completed.

Most important we have diapers, lots of diapers. We will continue to use gDiapers so mostly it was just stripping the diapers that have been sitting in a box for a year so setting them up nice and pretty so they will be ready for P2. On the right you can see the Little G's for newborn P2, they snap down a little in the front so they will not bother her umbilical cord as normally G's are worn pretty high. Next you will see our size Small G's which we hope will last until S3 is potty trained, should give us another 6 months. and on the left are S3's diapers. With the increase in diapers we decided to get a 2nd diaper pail which should be here some time this weekend.

Next we needed a solution for some clothes, since the girls will be sharing our second bedroom and we didn't have room for another dresser we are going to try a hanging bag for P2's clothes until she outgrows it.

Finally, a closet door still in need of a door handle. Since remodeling our house during our pregnancy with S3 we have not had a door in her closet. Since our big girl is sleeping in a full size bed and can get out of bed on her own we decided installing the door had made it to the top of our priority list. Thank you Dan for supplying the tools we were missing to get this job completed!

My friend Heather Lucas was so gracious in her offer to throw me a baby shower for P2. It was a wonderful afternoon spent with some great ladies. We are so blessed to have received so many great things.

Before S3 was born we decided she needed some wall art and we had some large canvas' that had been used to decorate my house in Texas, that just didn't fit in our house here in WA. After a quick paint job we added her name and words that we hoped would describe our daughter.

With P2 on her way we decided she needed some wall art to add to her sister's. We found large cardboard letter's at Joann's and some pretty pink spray paint at Home Depot then sat down to figure out what words we hoped would describe P2. We decided to try and base the words off the letters in her name which proved to be slightly challenging especially the Y, although we were able to several good ones and discarded many quite awful words. Scrapbook letters, some hot glue and clear coat finished off this project beautifully.

Lastly a beautiful smile to brighten our day! At 1 day shy of 18 months old, S3 has grown up so much and is such a wonderful joy to get to see grow every day.

Pretend Play

I have to say it is amazing to see your child grow, learn, imitate and explore.

Today as we were getting ready to go, S3 and I were hanging out in the living room and she brings me 2 Weebles and a Weeble car, I think the first time she's ever paid attention to the car. I have her set the car on the ground, hand her a weeble and instruct her to put it in the car, same with the 2nd weeble. After the Weebles are situated I tell her to push the car and she does! Pretend play with a little instruction.

Just a couple of minutes later she is given her stuffed puppy dog and walks over to the couch where I am sitting and without any prompting runs the puppy along the edge of the couch saying "woof, woof." She has been working on animal names and noises and I'm sure it has been assigned to this stuffed dog, but she got the dog and started to pretend play with it all by herself!

An update on the big bed
S3 is still sleeping in her big bed and has only fallen out once, but went right back to sleep after P1 rescued her from the floor. Last night she decided to climb out of bed instead of going to sleep, but was able to get herself back into bed, curled up on her pillows and went to sleep when no one came to rescue her from her room. Nap time today was a slight struggle after about 10 minutes of being in her room she came to her bedroom door and started banging on the door. Since we already had food in the oven we brought her out to eat. After eating she went back to her bed which she then climbed out of, but again was able to climb back into bed and take a good 2 hour nap. Tonight after a very tired fuss she went right to sleep!

Sleep

 So we've talked about it and discussed it and we finally did it. After a late night at the Everett Aquasox game, we left S3 to sleep on the big bed in her room. We laid her down, gave her a pacifier, covered her in a blanket, gave her kisses and shut the door. We heard a few small noises then quiet. We awoke at 1:30 to cries, P1 went to check on her and said she was not awake, just sitting up. After being laid back down, she is still asleep at 7:34am. I did risk waking her up a few minutes ago so we could share some pictures of our little girl sleeping in her BIG bed.

And we woke up well after 9 in a very good mood,

 Ready to read a good book.