Three Months

Happy official three months to our Aspen baby! We all love you so much.

12 Weeks and Mother's Day

Aspen is officially 12 weeks old! She's got a little cold, so she's been coughing and a little stuffy, and we're just trying to get past it as soon as we can. Fortunately, she's still a smile-y, happy little girl, when she's not coughing herself awake! And she's still growing, despite a decreased appetite. She just moved into 3-6 month clothing.

It even snowed last weekend, so we got to quick try out some of Sabine's cute winter outfits.



We had a nice Mother's Day with Nana Lin and Aunt Dani:



And Sabine gave me a lovely necklace with a family of penguins on it. This is the only picture I got, sorry it's a little blurry. You'll have to take my word on the penguins.



In other news, Aspen slept in her crib for the first time!



She's been spending her nights in a Rock-n-Play in our room, so that she stays elevated. It really seems to help keep the reflux down. But she was exhausted after her bath the other evening, so I just put her down in the crib while we did Sabine's bath in the next room, and she slept peacefully for about 10 minutes. (Her daytime naps don't usually last very long, although we do often get a longer stretch sometime in the afternoon, often between her 1:00 and 4:00 feedings.)

Our good friend Lindsay also came over last week and did a beading project with Sabine, and Sabine thought that was most excellent!





Sabine has also recently become interested in the Golden Gate Bridge thanks to ABCmouse.com (a computer game she likes to play), so my good friend Katie, who lives in San Francisco, sent her a book, and we have been enjoying that.



We had Sabine's preschool end-of-year picnic this week, and I had to do a double-take that it was already May. Where has this year gone?!

11 Weeks and counting

We feel lucky to be the parents of the two cutest girls in the world! :-)

Here are the updates, from what's been going on around here. Aspen is smiling more and more, she smiles for all of us, but has been especially grin-y to the cute baby in the mirror above her swing.



Aspen holds her head up pretty well now, but is still struggling with reflux, so we don't do a lot of tummy time because it usually ends in a regurgitated-milk mess. She's sleeping like an angel, knock on wood. She loves to chew on her fist, especially her left knuckles, which I thought was something completely new for our family, and then I went back and looked at some old blog posts and realized Sabine was doing the exact same thing at the exact same age: click HERE.

Aspen's last feeding is around 9:30-10:00 PM and then she usually sleeps through until close to 5:00 AM. If she gets up, it's usually because she has gas or one of the cats startled her. We still have her sleeping in our room in a Rock-n-Play, but she's getting bigger quickly so I don't think that will last much longer. And during the day, we manage to get out and about to run errands and see friends, like M, who was born 13 days before Aspen.



We hope they will grow up to be good buds!

The big news in Sabine's world is that she's starting to read! She's been going through a big growth spurt, we noticed she was eating more and her sleep has been disrupted (just to get up to go to the bathroom, or an occasional nightmare, but she usually goes back to sleep pretty well) again. So it was not surprising to find her brain was also in overdrive, something clicked and she has started sounding out whole words. One of her favorite things to read right now is her placemat that has a map of the United States on it. We're combining reading and geography! Very academic meals these days.



We also went to a fundraiser for Sabine's preschool over the weekend. Sabine had a great time with her friends, getting face paint and balloon sculptures and listening to the music. Sadly, we didn't win anything at the silent auction, but it was still fun supporting the preschool that we love so much.



We've had a lot of ladybugs appear, and fortunately Sabine is very keen on them, so we often go out to collect a few off the front porch.



Sabine and I also went out for mommy & me pedicures, and we had a blast together. We haven't gotten much alone time since Aspen's arrival, so it was a special treat for both of us, although we missed daddy and Aspen and were happy to come back home, too.



They even painted Sabine's nails and decorated her toe and thumb with a flower. Sabine insisted I take a picture, so voila:



We also swung by the florist/greenhouse this weekend to get some geraniums for our window box. Sabine likes flower stores as much as I do, and enjoyed running across their display bridge and cabana. She also picked out some Forget-Me-Nots seeds and a green pot, so we'll see how those do on our front porch.

Happy Easter

We're only a week late!

We had a great Easter. Sabine dyed eggs:











We did our annual egg hunt with friends on Saturday:









Aspen snuggled with daddy while I took pictures. I imagine next year she'll be puttering around with the big girls!

Easter morning, the Easter Bunny delivered at our house:








(Hard to tell from this picture, but Sabine's new Lottie doll, whom she named Ella, has been a big hit.)

Then we got the girls dressed up in their Easter dresses and did a quick photo shoot. They melt my heart.









Then it was time to head up to Longmont, to Aunt Diane and Uncle Nat's house, for a BBQ and another egg hunt. Sabine wasn't interested in changing into more farm-appropriate clothes, so off we went, still dressed in an Easter dress.









Cousin E even got in on the egg hunt this year!













There was even some Easter soccer.



All in all, it was a great Easter!

Two Months Old

Aspen is two months old today, eight weeks on Monday.



We went to the doctor this morning for her two-month check up, and here are her stats:

Height: 22.5", which is 57th percentile
Weight: 10 lbs 8 oz, which is the 33 percentile
Head Circ: 15.25", which is the 70th percentile

So she's right on track. She also got her first set of vaccines, so we are spending a quiet afternoon in, recovering.

Sabine was a big help, very soothing to her sister after Aspen got her shots. I don't have a picture of Sabine from this week, she was sick earlier in the week so she stayed home from preschool yesterday, and we had a nice movie day. But here's a shot of our big girl from our professional photo shoot!

Smiles All Around

We're well into week 7, but these pictures are from the past two weeks, since I haven't gotten to update recently.









Here's kind of a random collection of pictures to show what's been happening in our world:

We got a lovely care package from a dear friend in Australia. Sabine adores her new book about the Land Down Under.



Aspen's gotten some good cuddles in with the whole family.



The weather has gotten nicer, and Sabine and her friends love to play outside after preschool.



More than anything, Sabine loves to snuggle her sister. She is super gentle, and continues to be a good help to us.





Nana Lin and Aunt Dani took us out to a special restaurant for brunch to celebrate mommy's birthday today. Sabine and Ethan got to stay home and play outside (in the snow!) with a babysitter, while Aspen joined us downtown. She was a model baby, sleeping through most of it, and making eyes at the tables around us when we picked her up so that we got lots of ooohs and ahhhhs.



And here's a video from a couple weeks ago, closer to week five, but I just had to document her little coos and grunts. I know I will miss those tiny sounds soon enough.