Eeek! You know what this means... One month until the big TWO.  Which of course, means we're well into party planning mode.  You know, in my free time.  Three words: Mickey Mouse theme. The girl is OBSESSED with all things Mickey. 

Riley is so incredibly fun and funny, I can't even stand it.  She talks constantly, all day long, and repeats every little thing she hears.  She does not forget a single thing.  She knows she has swimming on Saturdays and soccer on Sundays and coffee group on Fridays.  If you tell her on Tuesday that Nana is coming to see her over the weekend, you better believe she will remember when the weekend comes.  She can count to twenty and loves to do so for anyone who will listen. She knows all her letters and their sounds, as well as a few words that start with each letter.  For example, "z is for zipper!! b is for backpack bear!!" etc...  She can spell her name, and loves to run around shouting "H-A-P-P-Y- happy!!!"  She also knows D-A-D-D-Y spells daddy but she can't spell that one on her own.

She has picked up some funny phrases and mannerisms from us.  Now when she bargains with us, she says "how 'bout, watch TWO Ri Ri videos..."  Apparently I say "how about" quite frequently when responding to her requests! Other things- she still doesn't pronounce the "s" sound on words that begin with "s," (star = tar, squid= quid, etc) she calls marshmallows "marshFELLOWS", she call orange "orngey." When we go to get in the car after an outing, she looks at each car and goes "that's our car? nope!  that's our car? nope!  THAT'S OUR CAR!! YEAAHHH!!!  Ri Ri's car!"

She knows all her colors (green seems to be her fave) and all her shapes, and LOVES her shape sorter still.  She loves to point out shapes everywhere we go, and circles are still her favorite.  She can draw her own circle, but she wants us to draw them for her all the time.  She asks us to draw big circles and little circles, and her new favorite request: "draw FIFTEEN circles mama!!" She loves coloring and painting, especially coloring on her hands.  And of course, she still LOVES the ipad.

Riley is even more in love with books these days.  The girl LOVES to read.  She has memorized so many of her books and it's the cutest thing ever to listen to her read them.   Just some of the ones she has memorized: Hop on Pop, Go Dog Go, Mickey and the Pet Shop, Lulu's clothes, Calling All Pals, Cookie See Cookie Do, all the "Tha's Not My ____" books, If you give a mouse a cookie, Baby Shapes, and a TON more!!  It's still wild to me how much she knows!  She loves to climb into bed (hers or ours) and read story after story with us.

I didn't think Riley could sing any songs, but turns out I just wasn't giving her the chance.  She actually knows a whole bunch of songs and rhymes and can sing them by herself- she can sing ABC's, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, This Little Piggy Went to Market (maaaaaaybe the cutest thing ever!), 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed, Ring-Around-the-Rosy, Wheels on the Bus, and probably a bunch more.

Riley has officially entered the MUST DO EVERYTHING MYSELF phase and oh my goodness if you try and help her, prepare for meltdown.  She wants to put her shoes on herself, take her PJs off herself, pour her own cereal, pour her own milk, make her own peanut butter sandwich, do all puzzles herself, read herself, turn the pages herself, flush the toilet herself, crack eggs by herself (it's in one of her mickey books, and she says "wanna crack-a um egg!!")... the list goes on and on.  For the most part, we let her do it all herself.  She's really good at putting her own shoes on, it just takes way longer than if we did it for her.  I let her make her own sandwich and pour her own milk everyday, which is much messier, and takes much longer, but she is so proud of herself when it's all done, and she shouts "YOU did all by yourself!!!" with the biggest smile on her face. 

She loves jumping on anything and everything (see above...and below), and loves to do a "butt slam" on... everything.  She loves trying on mama and daddy's shoes, wearing necklaces and headbands, wearing her shoes all day long, and playing with her baby brother.  She is super excited about her upcoming Minnie party, and has requested a rainbow minnie mouse birthday cake, and a mickey mouse present from grandma.  And a trampoline.  She wants a trampoline.

Riley is finally sleeping through the night mostly every single night, so sleeping from 7pm-5:15am-ish.  Yeah.  That's early.  She naps from around 11:30-2 every day (yay!) and wakes up the happiest little girl you've ever seen.  But don't you dare go in to her room and get her.  Even if she's already awake.  Oh nooo.  You must let her come out when she's ready, even if that means she sits on her bed (awake) for 20 minutes.  If you get her out before she's ready, oh boy, she's craaaaaaanky.

Happy 23 months little buggy!  One month until you are TWO!!! Oh and your sense of style is AWESOME.  I love you to pieces!!!

This little monkey turns TWO years old.  Can you believe it?

We've had a pretty fun week over here.  Nothing too special, but Jackson has been sleeping in his crib much more now, which leaves me completely free to read a million stories, play with playdoh and color and paint and build train tracks etc etc...  Riley is clearly loving the attention and 1 on 1 time, and there has been a dramatic decrease in tantrums, as I expected there would be.  I won't share all of the funny things she's been doing lately since I'll be writing those in her 23 month post in a few days, but I will share this fab picture of her post nap hair.  Oh. my. One big fluff-ball.

This required a little action on my part...Much better.  And I wish I could have gotten a better picture of her reaction when she looked at herself in the mirror, or maybe even a video... She took one look and said, "A ponytail!!! So pretty!! So cute, Ri Ri!!!"

After her nap I really wanted to try this little outfit on her, but I had a feeling she was going to put up a fight.  I had to bargain with her, which meant giving her a paci in exchange for a few pictures in this outfit. It's a littttttttle small, but I wanted to do some of her 2 year photos with her wearing this outfit, so I might try and make it work... Aside from the fact that she turns 2 in the dead of NZ winter, and this might be the worst thing ever for cold weather... We'll see.

And then little bubby is fast approaching 4 months old, which is also crazy to me!! Even crazier is that he's in 6-9 month clothes.  What a big boy!!  I'm trying to enjoy each and every moment with him while he's still so "tiny" (like right now he's laying snuggled next to me, fast asleep, since he wouldn't go to sleep in his own bed for the night.)  These days won't last forever,!

You can't really tell in this picture, but he's apparently got some fairly bad eczema, and I took him to see the doctor about a possible infection, and came home with 3 massive tubs and two little things of cream.  He's got an emollient cream and zinc cream and bactroban for his infection and hydrocortisone (which I don't know why, but I'm reluctant to use... so far we haven't needed it) and something for his bath.  I've been instructed no soaps or shampoos, even the super gentle Mustela ones we were using...he has to be constantly moisturized, special cream on his infected eczema spots multiple times a day, only cotton clothes, minimize dust in the house... the list goes on!  My poor little baby!!  And if it still doesn't settle down, the doc suggested I think about eliminating cow's milk from my diet, although I have very little in my diet as it is, so we'll see.

And Riley is still madly in love with her baby brother.  And it makes me the happiest mama in the world. :)

The little guy is 15 weeks old! I was going to be done with the weekly posts, but decided there is a lot changing lately so this could be his 3.5 month post.  So here we go.

Let me just start by saying this little boy is such a little angel baby.  He's a happy little dude who really only cries when hungry, too hot, in need of diaper change, or very overtired.  He's getting more and more personality each and every day and it's so much fun seeing him develop into a little person rather than a (very cute) blob of a baby.

Sleeping (day time):  In the past week, he has gone from needing to be held for all his naps to sleeping in his crib for most of his naps during the day!  I decided I really needed to get him napping in his own room during the day, because it wasn't fair to him or to Riley for me to be holding him out in the lounge for his sleeps.  Riley kept waking him up, I couldn't really play with Riley and was trying to get her to be quiet... it was just not working anymore.  So I decided to try and get him in his crib, but WITHOUT letting him cry.  Wasn't totally sure how to go about it, because it's not like I could spend 45 minutes rocking him to sleep or shushing him, that would sort of defeat the purpose.  But it was way easier than I thought.  Basically, at his first tired sign, I put him in his crib with a paci, and turn on his little fisher price seahorse.  It plays music and lights up, he stares at it and kicks and plays for a little bit in the quiet, dark room.  It seems to get him nice and calm and ready for sleep.  Usually after about 10-15 minutes he will start to whine/cry, and I go back in there, swaddle him up, give him his paci again, and pat his chest and stroke his little face until he falls asleep (usually takes just a few minutes).  Now, the longest he's slept in his crib has been an hour, usually more like 30-45 minutes, but it's a start!  Frees me up to play with Riley, and he doesn't get woken by her since he's in his own space! 

His awake time is about an hour and a half, but he can go up to two hours without totally losing it.  Any longer than that and we are in for a very overtired, cranky little boy.  He takes about 5 naps a day since his naps aren't very long.  Hopefully as his naps lengthen, he will only take 3 or 4 a day.

Sleeping (night time):  The past few days he has been wanting to go to sleep for the night at 5:30!!  Both times I thought he was just going to take a catnap, but then he's just stayed asleep!  Usually for this nap I was holding him since Mark was home, so last night I put him in his bed, and sure enough he only slept for 40 minutes. :) 

Now, night time sleep... oh boy.  We do the same routine every night, bath, feed, songs/stories, bed... sometimes he will fall asleep while feeding, and sometimes he needs to be rocked/walked around.  But lately after I put him in bed, he wakes up after only 20 or 30 minutes, and just won't go back to sleep unless he's walked all over the house, or laying with me on the couch nursing.  Then we have to wait until he's SOUND asleep before transferring him into his bed, and then he'll stay asleep in there for maybe 3-5 more hours.  He no longer does a big 6-7 hour stretch.  He went through a big 3 month growth spurt and started waking to eat more often in the night, and that's sort of just lingering now...  The other night he was up at 1am... and 3am... and 5am...  Sometimes he goes right back to sleep after nursing, sometimes not... And usually around 4 months things can tend do go downhill sleep-wise, soo we'll see how this all works out!!

Feeding: We're on a pretty good eat, awake, sleep routine these days, problem is, his sleeps aren't long enough to get him to a good 3 hour schedule.  So it's more like eating every 2.5 hours, sometimes 3.  I feed him more frequently in the evenings as well in hopes of filling up the tank!  A few nights I have tried a dream feed (waking him to feed around 10:30 before I go to bed) and I think I might try and do that more frequently, that way I don't go to sleep and then get woken up an hour later to feed him. 

Playing:  Jackson LOVES his play gym.  He talks to his toys and hits them and grabs them, he kicks his legs and swings his arms like crazy!  He loves looking in the mirror, looking at books, and watching everything Riley does.  He's fine with tummy time and is definitely getting stronger, although to be honest I don't put him on his tummy all that often... maaaaybe once or twice a day.  I've read conflicting things about the importance of tummy time, and I think Jackson is developing just fine, so I'm not worried about.

His fingers are in his mouth constantly.  I'm wondering if he's going to be a thumb or finger sucker?  He does take his paci for his naps, which is good because I swaddle him for naps so he can't get his hands anyway, but when he's awake, his hands are in his mouth.  He hasn't quite figured out he can grasp toys and bring them to his mouth.  He will grab onto blankets or our hands/fingers and try to shove them in there, but not toys so far. 

He seems to have a bit of eczema, on his face and arms and legs... I try to keep him all moisturized, but it's hard!  He's still got his cradle cap which is more obvious now that he basically doesn't have any hair.  He also has what seems like a bit of eczema or skin infection behind his one ear, which I am taking him to see the doctor about tomorrow. 

He is VERY ticklish- mostly on his tummy and his sides, but also on his legs.  He laughs almost every time we tickle his tummy.  He smiles all the time, and is constantly chatting.  He loves having someone to look at and talk to.  He loves bath time and sitting propped up.  He can sit up by himself for about 5 seconds before he topples over.  He rolls from back to side, but that's it.  He still loves the carrier, and he loves going for walks in the double stroller NOT in the car seat, but in the actual stroller!

He's just a big, happy little bubba and we love him to pieces!!!

A couple things have been happening here lately.  And there's lots to write about, but I seem to always be short on time lately.  Either babies aren't sleeping, or if they are, I'm trying to catch up on sleep, or I'm busy editing photos or trying to check one of the many items off my ever growing to do list.  But we still manage to find time for fun! 

Over the weekend, we went into the botanic gardens to scout it out as a potential photo shoot location.  Riley was your typical almost 2 year old, and wanted nothing to do with photos, which was fine because it was FREEZING cold.  Luckily Jackson was all bundled up asleep in his car seat the whole time, so was clearly unfazed by the cold.

Jackson has been SUCH a good baby lately (except for night time sleep, more on that in tomorrow's update).  He's a happy little dude, and I am SO thankful for that.  He smiles all the time, and he laughs all the time, and he puts up with all of Riley's antics, he's such a little sweetheart!  Can you believe he will be 15 weeks old tomorrow?  I'll probably do a 15 week update since it seems like so much has changed since he turned 3 months old (2 weeks ago).

And Riley?  Oh. my goodness. she gets funnier and funnier and smarter by the day.  Her new favorite thing to do? Color on her hands (and arms).  At first I didn't let her draw on herself, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized there is really nothing wrong with it aside from it gets a little messy.  I try to discourage her drawing on her face, but she can draw on her hands 'til her heart's content.  And so she does...

She literally wakes up from her nap, comes running down the hallway, and shouts, "wanna do coloring on da hands!!!"

I have so many hilarious videos of her, if only I could get a few more hours in the day to put them all together!!

We're also contemplating starting the potty training process for real- the other day she refused to lay still for a new diaper, so I gave her some minnie mouse underwear to wear, and told her that she could use the potty if she needed to go pee-pee, and not to go pee-pee on Minnie Mouse, etc...  She was wearing them for about an hour and a half, and mastered taking her underwear on and off by herself, and would sit on her little potty, but never actually peed in it.  And I would gently remind her every 5 minutes or so to use the potty if she needed to, and not to pee on Minnie.  She loves Minnie, so I thought that might be good motivation to get her to use the potty.  Welp, sure enough, when she had to pee, she took off her underwear, aaaaaand.... peed on the hardwood floor.  She then looked at me, and said very matter-of-factly, "no pee pee on Minnie. Pee pee on the floor."  I told her that we use the potty, not the floor, blah blah blah, and then I asked her "Riley remember no pee pee on the floor, where does your pee pee go next time?"  And she looked at me, thought about it, and answered: "On the rug?"
Oy, I've got my work cut out for me....

A post dedicated to my little man, who I fall more and more in love with each day.

My mom may have mentioned that she hasn't seen any videos of the wee man (hint hint), so I decided it was about time to put one together.  I mean, look at this little face....

So here you go, baby Jack, the first 3 months... imovie gave me a lot of trouble with this one, so I finally just gave up and published it as it was... it's not perfect, and the music is a little sappy (Mark proposed an Usher song for the background and I politely declined...), but I love it anyway.  7 minutes of baby Jack.  My how he's grown in three months!!

I've got a million things going on at the moment.  Trying to take care of babies, get the house clean and de-cluttered, waiting to see if Mark got a job back in the US, potentially preparing to sell our house, planning a 2nd birthday party, making a quilt and some newborn hats, booking lots of photo shoots, trying to finish Riley's second year album and finish Jackson's 0-3 month video, trying not to freeze in the cold NZ winter, aaaaaand the list goes on.  And it's not easy to do these things when the little baby has decided that independent sleeping is overrated!  So for tonight, I leave you with two photos, taken during a short break from the wind and rain while scouting a potential photo shoot location for this weekend.  This session is going to be amazing, can't wait!!

Jack Jack video coming soon, I hope.

Hope all you mamas out there have a fabulous mother's day!!

Riley has been asking me for MONTHS to put together her old bouncer.  Jackson is still too little to use it, but I finally gave in and put it together today.  And of course, this happened...

She looks like such a giant in there!!  I'm surprised her legs even fit through the leg holes.  She's only just barely over the weight limit, but she is obviously WAY too tall and way too old!  So we let its new rightful owner have a turn...

I have a feeling we are going to have a few battles over whose turn it is to use this thing...

And just to compare... Riley in her bouncer at 16 weeks (Jackson is almost 14 weeks).  It's crazy that she needed three phone books to touch the ground, and Jackson can almost touch the ground with nothing underneath...

Apparently my photography has improved just a little bit over the past two years... :)

It has been pretty cold here, and Riley has been sick, so we've pretty much stayed inside all week.  But this evening, I spent some time out in the garden, and Riley was dying to get outside, so once the rain stopped, we bundled her up, and walked around outside. And she was so bright and colorful, I couldn't NOT take pictures of her.  P.S. She was sporting a serious curl in the middle of her forehead, the pictures don't do it justice.

She's on the mend, so we may even be able to do fun things this weekend. :)

I can say that this past week has been the hardest one we've had yet since having two babies.  Mostly it was a case of unfortunate timing, but that didn't make it any less hard.  It started on Tuesday morning, bright and early, when Riley woke up vomiting.  Not good.  Not good at all.  We canceled all plans for the day, set up a little station for her on the couch, turned on Mickey Mouse while I tried to do a massive scrub down/sanitation of all things affected.  And then I also tried to figure out how in the world to keep Riley from touching/infecting Jackson with whatever she had.  Riley spent the day pretty miserable, not eating anything, and very sad that she wasn't allowed to hold and kiss and cuddle her baby.  I spent the day snuggling two babies, cleaning, being OCD about hand washing, and changing the most disgusting toddler diapers I've ever seen.  But no more vomiting, so that was a plus.

Oh yeah and?  That same day (Tuesday) Jackson had his 3 month immunizations. And this baby does NOT respond well to those, apparently.  Riley wasn't all that bothered by hers, but it really seems to affect Jackson in a negative way.  After his 6 week ones he was extremely unsettled that night, and this time was no different.  He's not really much of a crier, but he just cried and cried and was the saddest little thing all Tuesday evening, pretty much.  Just clearly uncomfortable and all out of sorts.  And that night after one decent stretch of sleep, he was up every hour. Needless to say, there was very little sleep, and a lot of snuggling going on, poor little guy.

On Wednesday, Riley was still feeling pretty awful- she barely ate a thing all day, and o.m.g. the diapers that I changed... ew.  Jackson was also still very unsettled all day, Riley threw some of the biggest tantrums of her life, I often had two very sad, crying babies, and I was exhausted, physically and mentally.  The morning went a little like this: Try and get Riley dressed?  Tantrum.  Tell her okay you can stay in your PJs?  Tantrum.  Pick out the wrong story to read?  Tantrum.  Sing the ABCs TO her instead of letting her sing it to me?  Tantrum.  Put her milk in the purple cup and not the pink cup?  Tantrum.  Help her open up her water bottle so she can have a sip?  You get the idea... I was trying soooo hard to be patient and sympathetic because it was clear she was just feeling awful, but man, tantrums like that are just emotionally draining.

Thursday was looking up- Riley was less fragile, Jackson was better, but still not himself (again he was up multiple times the night before).  Also he seemed to have developed some little fungal infection behind his ear, which warranted a trip to the pharmacy to get some special cream.  It was pretty red and inflamed, so I'm sure it had been bothering him all day, which would explain why he was all out of sorts.  The entire day he was basically either eating, sleeping, or crying, poor little guy (not as bad as it sounds though, he pretty much slept on and off for 4 hours in the middle of the day... as long as I was holding him).  And Mark came home a little early and I got to go out for an hour by myself!  With no babies!  Of course it was to run errands, but it was just enough time away, by myself, to feel rejuvenated.

Anyway... I'm hoping that tomorrow will be even better.  Maybe both babies will be back to their normal selves.  Maybe it won't be quite as overwhelming.  Maybe we will even manage to get out of the house? Maybe every. little. thing. won't send Riley into a screaming kicking floppy fish sort of tantrum... maybe Jackson will let me put him down for 2 seconds without crying?  But if not, we'll park it on the couch AGAIN, read stories and snuggle, and hope for a better day after tomorrow.  Wish me luck.

(All photos courtesy of my computer)