I KNOW I way overdo this comparison thing, but . . .

Indulge me. I did not have this blog when Analese was a baby, so her baby pics are not on here. Every now and then I take a pic of Mariele and I think to myself, I have SEEN this one before almost 3 years ago! I'm sure as they get older differences will emerge, but for now I'm having fun with this! Do they not look like the same baby, but Analese had just a little more hair right up top?

Smily Mariele!

GORGEOUS weather - and some camera phone pics!

It was 76 degrees this afternoon when we strolled the kids over to the park. I could not believe my eyes when I looked over and saw THIS:





Yes, it was Mariele's very first time in the swing at the park!

Analese had fun climbing (my little monkey):



And she had fun playing with dogs too! She wants a dog so badly. The cats just aren't quite interactive enough for her:



And then she had a blast just running around in the grassy soccer field and the sandy volleyball court:








And finally as she tired out she decided to place all of the "lawn turds" from the freshly aerated field back into their holes:

Cuteness . . .

Almost 3 year olds are just hard to photograph. If she is not in the mood, then it doesn't matter how cute she looks, she just will not smile!



This one is pretty consistently cute!

Mariele's 1 month check-up . . .

Well, she will actually be 6 weeks tomorrow. But we finally got her in for that 1 month visit. The most exciting part of these well baby visits is the weighing and measuring. For comparison's sake, here are her stats at 3 days old:

Weight: 6 pounds; 8th percentile

Height: 19 inches; 20th percentile

Head: 13 1/2 inches; 25th percentile

And (drumroll please) - here are her stats today!

Weight: 10 pounds 2 ounces; 60th percentile

Height: 21 5/8 inches; 50th percentile

Head: 15 inches; 70th percentile

This massive growth makes me feel all warm and fuzzy! And it makes me repeatedly pat myself on the back as her growth was a direct result of my wonder milk produced by my very own body! I was so concerned that I had such a tiny baby and now look at her! Double chin and all! I'm so excited about this!



And here is an interesting mommy stat. I've been working out on the Wii Fit and I like to do the daily body test. At the end of the daily body test the Wii Fit presents you with your Wii Fit age, which is basically a physiological age that it calculates from your actual age and your performance on some body tests. Some days the result can be discouraging because the thing can be rather insulting to you if your Wii Fit age is way above your actual age. Well yesterday I had the best Wii Fit age ever!! So my actual age is 34. Yesterday my Wii Fit age was (drumroll please):

26!!!!

I guess that is as good as I can do without making Analese's Wii Fit age of 2!

Time for another edition of which is which!

Tummy time and play time. . .

Let's go bananas!

Time for some more cute photos!

Here is Mariele in her really cute onesie. Don't mind the baby zit on her face:






Check out these photos of Analese and Mariele together. Usually Analese can get her to crack a smile. Can't you just see the sister love already?







I had my iphoto configured to show me the last 12 months of photos. So after this final photo, it started back over with Feb. 26, 2008. So check out the photo of Analese today and the photo of her one year ago today. Look at how much she has grown! Her hair has really grown a lot too! She has never had a haircut, by the way.




Today I caught Analese swinging Mariele in the swing (instead of just letting the motor do it). She was swinging her pretty hard and saying, "You go real high, Mariele!" Oh dear! Analese loves to go high in the swings at the playground.

We have a 4:00 play date after Analese wakes from her nap. We are going to our neighbor's house (not next door, but in the neighborhood) to jump in their bounce house! We have had several play dates with these people so far. I like the mama a lot, and Analese gets along well with her 3 year old daughter. We even went to dinner with their family last Friday night. It is nice to make friends in our neighborhood.

Making my life easier!

We are now the proud new owners of a BOB Revolution Duallie stroller! Found a really sweet deal on one from a shop locally. We went on a wonderful mile and a half walk this afternoon with both kids in the stroller. The ride is so smooth that they both went to sleep and Lee and I just got to walk and talk! I LOVE this stroller! It unfolds and folds so easily. It is surprisingly lightweight for a double stroller. It has a swivel front wheel (locks also if you want). 16 inch tires. It is incredibly easy to push. I felt like I was pushing nothing. This thing rides like it is on a pocket of air! Each seat independently reclines and has it's own sun canopy. The recline is far enough back that Mariele was lying down very comfortably. And her head was supported well also. And this thing fits through all standard doorways even though it is a double wide! It is incredibly maneuverable - I would say even more maneuverable than many single strollers!





I know, I know - I take way too many sleeping baby pictures, but I just love them! I took this one of Mariele taking her afternoon nap on our bed. I just plopped her down there after nursing her. She seemed so relaxed and comfortable that I just let her finish her nap there. I always swaddle her at night, but most of the time she is unswaddled for daytime naps. I love the way she sleeps with her arms up like that. Analese always slept like that as a baby too.

Worth its weight in gold!!!

The swing came yesterday less than 24 hours after I went "click" on the computer. Let's hear it for internet shopping! I put the thing together. Would have taken less than half an hour, but with all my interruptions it took all afternoon. But Mariele loves it! Last night (during her evening fussy time at that) she napped in the swing while Lee and I did our monthly bill paying. The bill paying took over an hour. It would have been impossible for us to do this if it were not for the blessed swing!

This morning I got really really brave and agreed to meet Yng Yng and her kids at the children's museum. So Mariele got some more swing time in as I got myself and Analese ready to go. Here is a progression of swing photos. They are motion shots, so therefore a little blurry. But watch the progression from content to sleepy to asleep! YAY!






So I somehow managed to get everyone out to the Children's museum. They were having critter time this morning. They brought out the milipede, a couple of snakes, a bearded dragon and a turtle and did a little show. The kids got the pet the animals. My child actually touched a snake - YUCK!

My next purchase will be a double stroller. I was not sure if I would need one or not, but now I am pretty sure it would be helpful. Sometimes I need my arms and hands free to simply control my toddler. She did not want to leave the museum, and I had a hard time dragging her out of there while holding Mariele who was out of the New Native at the moment because she was fussy and needing to be fed. I need to find a nice double stroller and go "click" on my computer now. If anyone has any suggestions for me, please comment!

At least I did get Analese out to do something fun today. And the weather is so nice. We went to the playground yesterday and she got to play with her new little friend. We became acquainted with this family at the park recently and they are having us to dinner tomorrow night (they live in our neighborhood). Their little girl is 3 and gets along with Analese very well. They have a very cute son who is 10 months old.

I think I will also feel better once I get more exercise. A double stroller will help with that as well. Maybe we could go on some long afternoon walks during the kids' drowsy times. I am making progress in this maternity leave of mine.

Feel like I'm flunking - Oh, and Happy Birthday to my hubby!

It has been a trying morning. Actually a bit of a repeat of yesterday, but I guess I just am not handling it as well today.

First of all, everyone wakes up happy. Here are my cute girls!




So we are all happy for awhile, then Mariele starts getting tired. But she will not let me put her down! If I think she is good and asleep and I try to put her down, she will only stay asleep 5-10 minutes and then she requires holding with movement or rocking. We had a swing when Analese was a baby. She was never that into movement though. We sold it on Craigslist a couple of years ago and now I am bonking myself in the head over that decision. So today in a moment of sheer desperation I ordered this:



It is the Fisher -Price Papasan cradle swing. I will keep this one until I complete menopause and I know for absolute certain I am not having any more babies! It will be here tomorrow. I can't wait. It is just so frustrating to me when I cannot get things done because my baby won't let me put her down for a second. My toddler has mommy needs too! And sometimes the things I am trying to do are awkward to do carrying baby in the New Native.

Analese and I somehow managed to bake Lee a carrot cake. It is cooling now. We still need to make the frosting.

Lee is 36 today! We celebrated with friends last night at Shogun. The restaurant staff sang happy birthday to Lee and brought him out an artfully carved pineapple and orange with a birthday candle stuck in it. After dinner we had TCBY yogurt cake at our house.

Weekend Highlights . . .

Valentine's weekend has been nice, but maybe not so romantic. We enjoyed a wonderful vegetarian Thanksgiving-style lunch yesterday with our friends at their house. We also got to spend some time with their neighbors who were also there. The girls wanted to hold Mariele. Alanna first because she is the oldest:




And then her little sister Anita really wanted a turn. Look at her cute and pouty face in this photo:



Finally Anita gets her turn and now she's happy:



This morning Mariele enjoyed a nice nap on her Daddy:




And this is a funny picture of Analese that I took on Thursday night. The child LOVES her pacis and she has a paci stash in her special drawer in my night stand. She thought it would be funny to try to put as many pacis in her mouth as she possibly could. She made it to four! I am going to have to start losing these pacis one by one I guess.