The weather has been wonderful lately, so Lydia has spent a lot of time outside. She loves it, and it's good for Mommy to get out and get some exercise and fresh air as well. Here's a cute shot of Lydia on a walk the other day!

Molly turns 8 weeks old tomorrow! (Fastest 2 months of my life!)

Tummy time. Way to lift your head, Molly!

Next week I'll try to write some updates on Miss Molly at 2 months old. Stay tuned!

Lydia and Molly have a new cousin! Miles William Barron was born last week, and we are so happy he is a part of our family! Congratulations to big brother Warner and parents Mike and Katie! Here are the 4 cousins today.

Warner (19 months), Miles (4 days), Molly (7 weeks, 6 days), Lydia (almost 3 years)

Miles and Molly...just 7 weeks apart!

Oliver and his brother, Mike, and their new babies!

Tomorrow Molly will be 7 weeks old!

More potty training pics! (She's gonna love these when she's a teenager, huh?)
Wish us luck... This weekend we're gonna stay close to home and try big girl panties all weekend. Obviously we're gonna have a lot of accidents...but I'm hoping she'll quickly make the connection about being wet. Not looking forward to it!!

Playing at the playground in our neighborhood...

We are finally ready to brave the world of potty training… We have about 5 diapers left and we’re moving into Pull-ups.  Wish us luck!  So far, Lydia enjoys sitting on the potty.  I’ve heard that the trick is to have them “try” as many times as possible in a day.  Be consistent, drink a lot of fluids and try often.  I guess at some point she’ll “accidently” go potty and then she’ll make the connection.  I’ve also heard that we should just bypass the Pull-ups altogether and start with real underwear (3daypottytraining.com).  That way, she’ll definitely connect the dots about being wet.  That method would result in a lot of wet accidents around the house.  I think I’m okay with that, but let’s ease into this gently… We may go that route.  For now, if she tries sitting on the potty for us, she is rewarded with 2 puffs (one of her favorite snacks).  Tonight, she sat there for a LONG time and had a lot of fun.  She didn’t even care about her reward.  Occasionally I would turn the faucet on to try to encourage her to accidently go potty.  All in all, we’re totally confused about how to approach all of this, but we know it’s time to go for it.  Advice is very welcome!! 

Yesterday Molly tried out her mobile for the first time.  Her sister loved it when she was Molly’s age…and so did Molly!  It definitely had her full attention.  She’s been smiling more and more, but we have yet to catch it on camera. 

Molly is still not sleeping for longer than 2-3 hours at a time at night (sometimes less) but she did transition from our room to her crib about a week ago, and seems to like her bed.  Unfortunately, she has caught her first cold.  We’re passing it around the family… We’ve all had symptoms.  No fever, thank goodness.  Between the humidifier and the nasal bulb, we’re doing the best we can to help her cope.

Princess Lydia loves her new crown!

Meanwhile, Miss Molly went for her one month check-up today (although she's 5 weeks now, actually). She is doing great, and growing well! Thank you, God, for such a healthy baby!

Weight: 10 lbs, 14 oz (90th percentile)

Length: 21 1/2 in. (75th percentile)

Head: 15 1/4 (75th percentile)

5 weeks old

 

Little Molly is one month old! What a fast month this has been. She’s a sweetheart, and I’m so in love with her little face! She was supposed to go the Doctor today for her one month old check up, but we’re in the middle of a 4 day ice storm and it was cancelled. We rescheduled for next week, and I look forward to hearing her latest stats. She is definitely filling out! She looks bigger every day. I mostly see it in her face and thighs!

 

She doesn’t sleep as much as I thought she would. It seems like we skipped that lovely newborn stage when they fall into a deep sleep after each feeding and you don’t hear from them again for a few hours. She’s alert a lot, and takes more cat naps than long naps. We haven’t really established a schedule, yet, and no 2 days are the alike.

When I was on maternity leave with Lydia, I had more time to upload pictures and write blog entries, but this time things are busier. I want Molly to have a well-documented infant stage as well, however, so I’ve got to get busy!

Here are some fun facts about Miss Molly at one month old:

She has the cutest crybaby face I have ever seen! When her little lips frown because she’s sad, it’s the saddest face you’ve ever seen, but SO darn cute at the same time! I love her sad face. :)

When she naps, she periodically lets out a little cry here and there and then resumes her nap. She’ll do this a number of times during her sleep. I wonder if she’s reliving her trip through the birth canal or something. :)

She doesn’t care about the soothie pacifier, and I have to force it on her sometimes to help her calm down. Literally, I force it on her. Sounds strange, I’m sure, but she doesn’t realize it will help her calm down when she’s irritable or restless. I hold it in her mouth for several seconds even though she’s trying to push it out with her tongue. Once she begins to suck on it, she’ll usually hang on to it for a long time, and she is soothed (hence the name “soothie”).

She hasn’t really taken to the swing, which is a surprise because Lydia loved it. She has had a few good naps in there, but more often than not when we place her in it, she squalks after about 10 minutes.

Her favorite way to be held is to lie on her tummy either on our shoulder or chest. She looks so cute with her little face pressed against our bodies, totally sound asleep.

She prefers to be held most of the time. Walking around with her is probably the most effective way to get her to fall asleep at this point.

When she’s alert and happy, she likes to lie on her back on the play mat or a blanket and look around and move her legs.

She’s been practicing her smile! We’re not positive if what we’ve seen here and there was a “real” smile or just random facial movement, but either way…she’s well on her way to a super cute happy face! Yesterday Oliver was holding Molly while Lydia was looking at her, and he swears she smiled right at Lydia! Wish I had seen it!

She goes potty ALL DAY LONG. Poor thing probably never has a clean diaper, because as soon as I change it, she goes again. Literally. Sometimes I seal the diaper, and then…she goes again. It’s impossible to keep up with. She has outgrown her newborn size Pampers Swaddlers already, and is wearing a size one. After several leaks in the newborn ones, we moved on… They’re too small to contain her constant pottying!

Mommy is never, ever completely clean. I shower and put on clean clothes, and within minutes it seems, I have breast milk, spit-up or potty on me somehow. Thanks, Molly.

She doesn’t like her baths AT ALL. I make sure the water is nice and warm, but still she cries the whole time. And it’s a panicked, scared cry – totally and completely heartbreaking. Thankfully she’s small and I’m quick, so we’re done in 2 minutes or less! I can’t stand to see that scared little face and hear that super sad cry! Snuggling and comforting her afterward is a really sweet time, though.

I was reading Lydia’s first year baby book the other night and read an entry about her overnight sleeping and feeding habits at about 2 weeks old. It described my nights with Molly to a T, except that Lydia slept longer between overnight feedings. Molly and I have had some really rough nights, and others which weren’t so bad. I love her to pieces, and all of our hours together equal great bonding time, but…I am so looking forward to this phase ending! Having said that, I don’t want to her to grow up too quickly.

Lydia has accepted the changes at home, and is becoming a great big sister. Early on we showed her how to gently stroke Molly’s head, so she does this a lot. We always tell her how sweet that is, and that “Molly likes that.” She likes to look at Molly and will often get really close to her face to look her in the eye. She is usually really good when I’m nursing Molly, and doesn’t get jealous. If Oliver isn’t available to distract her, Lydia will routinely grab a book and come to sit on top of my legs on the ottoman while I’m nursing. I do the best I can to read her the book and tend to Molly at the same time. When she gets close to me to observe Molly nursing, I’ve explained to her that “this is how babies eat”. She doesn’t seem to care too much. We’ve had a few moments during the day when Lydia was upset because I needed to tend to Molly, but thankfully those moments have been rare.

I’m really looking forward to Molly smiling and giggling, because I think Lydia will love that. Especially if she’s the one making Molly laugh! Again, I don’t want to rush Molly and see her grow too quickly, but it’s going to be really fun when she can sit up and “play” with Lydia.

We’re not certain who Molly looks like at this point… She has brown hair (not a lot of it, though!) and her skin tone is a little bit darker than Lydia’s fair complexion. So far if I had to guess, she’s going to take after my side of the family. Me and my Dad are not as fair as my sister and my Mom. Lydia’s eyes are from my side, I think – they’re big like Kelly and I have, and pure blue like my Dad’s. Her blond hair and fair complexion looks like her Omi and Grammy, and her face primarily takes after Oliver. Where Molly is concerned, the jury is still out. I keep comparing her baby pictures to Lydia’s, and there are some which look very, very similar to one another, and others which don’t… We’ll see. She’s super cute, that’s for sure!! Her eyes are beautiful, and her lips are adorable.