yummy!!

When Maeyer is finished with her bath, she smells de-licious.  All natural grapefruit and lavender body wash, all natural citrus lotion, and coconut oil to battle the cradle cap.

She smells like a freshly baked pineapple upside-down cake.  I could just eat her up!  Yum.

Happy [belated] Birthday!!

One month later ... a birthday party for Maklin / baby shower for Maeyer.  Might as well start having joint parties now!

In the hub-bub of the party - Maklin unfolded his couch and crawled in with a book (close up to follow).
Guess he needed a little 'downtime'!

Big thanks to all the babies/toddlers and their parents who came out.  It was a chaotic nutty good time; Maklin had a lot of fun running around with his friends and is very thankful for the spoiling he got. He's especially loving reading all his new stories!!!

Maeyer ... well she mostly slept through the festivities this year.  I suppose she's saving up her energy for next year's shaker.

She was so quiet in fact, that the only picture I got was of her having a cuddle with Joanna.

Nana & Grampa

Thanks for coming to visit Nana & Grampa!  It was nice to hang out with you, and Mama appreciated the extra hands around as we all recovered from our cold & flu bugs.

Until next  time ... "Grampa - you're doofy [goofy]!"

the boys

We had to take a break during the photo shoot so I could nurse Maeyer.

Mae and I took a break anyway ... an awesome photo session of my boys (who both love being outside) ensued:

photo shoot

One of Justin's students is keen on photography and tried her hand at newborn pics - with some help from her sisters (thank-you Tracy, Trina & Kelsey!).  We ended up with some cute shots:

apple of my eye

Maklin loves helping in the kitchen:  cooking, baking, watching, doing dishes ...

Today:  we made Daddy an apple pie.

i heart peanut butter

cuddle time

The Fall is crazy-hectic time for Justin.  Back at teaching, random rental property maintenance, and the biggest time commitment:  coaching volleyball.

Thankfully, some evening and weekends he has some downtime with the kidlets:

pre-bed cuddles.

Maklin likes to cuddle up in Mama & Daddy's bed.

no more tears

Mae gets a bath every few days.  She wasn't sure about it in the beginning, but is now well on her way to enjoying bath tub time as much as the rest of the family.

Maklin time

One of the things I was most determined to do once the baby came was make sure that Maklin still had special time with both his Dad and I.  So -- even though I wasn't feeling so much like getting dressed and leaving the house, it was a priority to continue taking Maklin to his extra-curricular activities.

The second day home from the hospital, we went to the Library for Bye Baby Bunting.  We had Daddy home with us for the day, so we went as a family ... since then -- we've been able to go every week, even going early so that Mak and I could read some books at the library and pick out new library books to bring home (later becoming instrumental during nursing!!).

When Mae was 4 days old, we went to a Halloween Party.  Mak refused to wear his Halloween costume, but he still had fun playing with his friends.  We all had a big nap that day ... but we did it!  Mak even made it to his gymnastics class that afternoon, thanks to Lulu!!  We've continued to go to gymnastics every week ... so far Mae is content to sleep while Mak and I play for 45 minutes.  And the walk there and home is nice too.

Maklin got a new coloring book and crayons from his baby sister ... quality coloring time, along with playdough time, puzzle time, reading time, finger painting time, washing dishes time, and helping bake time are common stay-at home activities these days!!

One of the best things for Mak and I has been for us to work to get out of the house and go somewhere and/or do something every day though:

Indoor playground fun.

 We've established a routine at bedtime that I think has been nice for Mak ... it's definitely been nice for me.  Justin puts Mak to bed every night, but once he's had stories and is all tucked in, every night he asks for me to come in an sing him a lullaby.  It's our 2 minutes of special time at the end of each day.  I love it.  Sometimes it takes a little coordinating to sneak it in ... but it's so worth it.

Miss Mae

Miss Maeyer is almost 3 weeks old already!!  SO much has happened in the past three weeks.

I've spent a tremendous amount of time learning every little detail of this adorable face, breathing in the sweet newborn smell, and enjoying the feel of the soft little bundle snuggled into my shoulder.

Week 1:
- Days and nights were switched leading to more awake time in the wee hours than  I would like.  I don't think I slept in my bed for longer than an hour at a time this whole week ... although I did have longer stretches of sleep in random awkward positions on the couch.
- Mae and I worked out the details of nursing relatively easily.
- Maklin, although proud to have a baby sister, was having a hard time adjusting: "whiny" and "defiant" pretty much sum up the Maklin I saw most of this week.  We made a determined effort to make sure Mak was getting special time for him and that we were doing everything we could to find middle ground.
- Unfortunately, there were a few occasions where Mak and I ended up having a cry together.  Him out of frustration with all the changes, me out of frustration with him, and sadness of not being able to make him feel more secure.

Week 2:
 - EASY routine settling in ... Mae is sleeping in longer stretches at night so that we're getting up twice a night to nurse, but she's sleeping in her bassinet and I'm sleeping in my bed!
- She's a very content little girl ... rarely fusses or cries and is very alert during her brief phases of awake time.
- She isn't in love with bath time (yet) - but is learning to tolerate!!
- Maklin is adjusting ... this week there was less crying (on both our parts!).

Love how her hair is all fuzzy after a bath!

Week 3:

- Maeyer is sleeping in 4-5 hours stretches, getting up once in the middle of the night to nurse and then goes right back to sleep!  WOOT!!!
- Maklin and I have had NO crying episodes this week.  We're getting into a routine.  I've figured out a number of things I can do to make him feel more secure and settled ... and he's feeling more comfortable with using his words to tell me he's feeling frustrated and about what.  PROGRESS!!

So alert!

Maklin is learning to be gentle with Mae; he likes to gently stroke her hair.

Doing what she does best ...

Sleep.  Anytime ... anywhere!

birds

Things have been busy around here, so Justin has been 'winterizing' the backyard and garage in phases each weekend.

Maklin's been helping:  All our bird feeders are now cleared out and filled with fresh seeds.

"Birds eat seeds!  Birds like berries!  Birds eat seeds!!"