Clara the ballerina

Clara has started a month long ballet class for 2 year olds at the community center. It is the cutest thing ever!!! It's also encouraging for me to see that all the other little girls have just as short an attention span and lack of focus as Clara.   I know she's just 2 but this kid wears me out!! For one of the songs today the teacher handed out princess accessories. She started with necklaces and Clara was given a blue one. The teacher then handed out bracelets and rings which were different colors. Clara wouldn't stop pestering the teacher until she switched hers so she had all blue accessories. Oh my she might have gotten some of aunt Catherine's genes.

This is what Miles thinks of ballet class. 

Oh My Goodness

Oh my goodness is apparently something I say a lot although I didn't realize it. Clara has taken up the saying and says it with exactly the same enthusiasm as I say it. This kid is constantly cracking me up! She also has started saying oh Clara, with the same exasperated tone I use. Today during lunch I was nursing Miles and she wasn't getting the attention she thought she deserved so she dumped the juice left over from her pineapple onto the floor. I turn around to see what she's done and as soon as I look at her with that what have you done now expression she says oh Clara then a big sigh... exactly like I was getting ready to do. It was all I could do to keep a straight face!

On Monday Clara went poo poo in the potty which completely shocked me. I know so many friends who have had a lot of trouble with that so I really have only been encouraging her to go pee pee in the potty even though we have mentioned that she gets even more treats if she does the other. This next part might be too much information so I apologize. Monday morning I was getting ready to get in the shower so I took her into the play room and she having some gas so I reminded her that if she went poo poo on the potty she would get a really big treat. She said ok like she usually does and then told me she wanted to play blocks. So I'm getting her blocks out and she says mommy I go poo poo on the potty. So we both run to the bathroom and although she didn't get there fast enough to get it all in the potty she got some in there. I was so excited I gave her like half a cup of m&ms! So then we called daddy and told him and she wanted to also call Mimi and Pop Pop and tell them. We talked lots about it during the day and how proud mommy was of her. Well that night we went to Lowes.... you know where this is going. Brian went to get some things and me and Clara went to the washers and dryers which she still loves to play in. A lady comes up and asks us if she can help us and Clara blurts out I Clara, this my brother Miles, that my mommy and I go poo poo in the potty! The woman looks a little flustered and says do you need the bathroom, its over there and starts pointing and looking nervous. No no I tell her, it was this morning, we are just still really excited about it. Out of the mouth of babes she says and starts laughing. I'm pretty sure I was completely red! Never a dull moment with this one!

Miles is 3 months old!

My sweet little man is 3 months old! He has started rolling over from front to back and can roll from his back to his side, but not all the way over in that direction yet. He likes being on his tummy, especially when Clara is doing something interesting that he can watch. He still nurses about every 3 hours but sometimes goes a little longer. The best part is he is mostly sleeping through the night! For the last week I have nursed him around 10PM and he has slept till 5 or 5:30AM!! Then he eats and goes back down until about 8:30. His naps are still sporatic with most of them being in the swing or the car seat. He is probably ready to start being on more of a schedule but with an older sister that probably won't happen very consistently. He is still sleeping in the pack and play in our room and mommy is still his favorite! Although he is doing a lot better with letting other people hold him and being content with daddy in the evenings. We sure do love our sweet little boy!! 

April activities

We are finally having some warm days!

Summer concert series near our house has free face painting! Clara sat down on the stool and out of no where said I want to be a purple kitty cat like brown bear book. Well okay then. Definitely the cutest purple cat I've ever seen! (Mommy looks kind of rough because I went exercising that morning and never had two free minutes to get changed the rest of the day).

One of the many strangers Clara struck up a conversation with. No, we don't know these people. Our child is very shy.

Brian had a busy weekend moving mulch. Clara liked riding on top of it in the wheel barrow.

Oh my goodness does she look grown up or what!!

Doing a little painting. Now that I've introduced her to paint she refuses to use markers or crayons. Awesome.

Playing with our friend Hailey at Bass Pro Shop.

Brian and his friend Tim had daddy daughter dates and took the girls to the NCSU vet school open house. 

Easter

Miles' first Easter was a bit....wet.  We went down to the beach like usual but it rained nonstop for the entire 3 days. We dyed eggs with Clara for the first time and she did really well with it.  We hid the eggs on the porch and in the living room.  Not the most exciting egg hunt ever but she enjoyed it.  On Sunday we went to lunch at the clubhouse then Brian took her to their Easter egg hunt.  It was pouring rain so they had to have it in the little covered porch area. Brian said she was a little slow at first because she had just gotten up from her nap and wanted him to hold her but eventually she got into it and found 9 eggs.  Because it was wet and cold I stayed home and took a nap with Miles. It was a little disappointing that they didn't get to have the great big egg hunt because Clara and I had been practicing at home for a month but maybe next year.

Clara got bored with putting stickers on the eggs and found two new subjects.

Miles is Rolling over and almost sleeping through the night!

Miles is 12 weeks old, he will be three months old in 5 days and today he rolled over! I was thinking it would still be a while so I was shocked when I came out of the kitchen because he was screaming to see him on the floor on his back. He had almost rolled onto his side one time before but I didn't think much of it and thought it would be a while before he started rolling. I just checked the blog for Clara's rolling over post thinking this is way earlier than she did it but its only 10 days earlier than Clara. We also had another milestone last night, Miles slept from 10PM till 5AM!! He nursed at 5AM then went right back to sleep until 8:30AM. Everyone told us how lucky we were with Clara sleeping well but she's got nothing on this little guy!

Its also crazy to think that this is the week I started back to work when I had Clara. I remember thinking it was the hardest thing I'd ever done, leaving my little girl and I can't even imagine leaving Miles now. He's never been away from me for more than three hours and he's just started tolerating that the last couple of weeks. He use to cry most of the time if I was gone. He is a mommy's boy for sure! Miles still hasn't taken a bottle and at this point probably won't. We weren't very diligent about trying early on and I definitely don't have time to pump with Clara to keep up with. So I guess I won't be getting any breaks for long periods of time for the next 9 months but that's okay. Its funny reading my old posts about Clara at this age. She was napping in her crib on somewhat of a schedule. Miles has yet to ever be in his crib. Life is so crazy with a baby and a two year old that Miles has to nap wherever he ends up; in the swing, bouncy seat, car seat, mommy's arms, on the floor, etc. And I have never timed any of his naps so I have no idea how long he sleeps. He is getting into a pretty good routine where he eats, then is awake for a little while then naps till the next feeding or until he gets woken up by his sister (which happens pretty often). Love this little guy so much!!

Miles is 2 Months Old

My sweet boy is two month old! He got his first round of shots at the pediatrician this visit and did great. He is part of a trial study where he is getting a new Meningitis vaccine combined with his others. The drug has already been approved. The study is just for combining it with the other regular vaccines. Its a little bit of a pain because we have to document everything about him for 4 days after every round of vaccines but if it helps keep my baby healthy its worth it! At 2 months he weighed in at 11.5 lbs (40%) and was 23.3 inches (60%) tall. He is already wearing 6 month clothes so I thought he would be a lot higher on the percentage chart but apparently they just make baby boy clothes small.

This last week Miles has started to only get up once during the night which is awesome!! That extra half hour of sleep makes a big difference when your chasing a two year old and have a baby. He still nurses every 3 hours during the day and is super happy most of the time. Most days he still sleeps the majority of the time but he does have the occasional day where he will be awake a lot. Usually on the weekend when there is a lot going on. He smiles and makes little noises a lot now which is fun. Mommy is still definitely his favorite but he has started to like daddy a lot more and will quiet down for him too now if he gets really upset.

Isn't this the cutest little guy ever??