Freya at 2 Months

Freya hit 2 months on September 25th. She had her 2 month check up on September 29th and weighed 13 pounds 9 ounces which put her in the 95% and she measured in the 75% for length (I’ve misplaced her checkout sheet with the exact measurement). She is no longer fitting into her 0-3 month clothes. She is a very calm baby and an excellent sleeper – the best sleeper of all our babies. Freya makes lots of cooing sounds when we talk to her and smiles for attention. Freya has shown a strong preference for the ergo carrier over her car seat. She really hates to be in her car seat if she’s awake so whenever I go get groceries or to the zoo with Alice, I carry her in the ergo. When strangers see me with Freya out and about they always comment on her pretty red hair.

Freya never fit well in our divided sink but she can’t fit at all anymoreShe’s graduated to the bathtub.Bryan traveled a LOT in September. He went to three conferences three weeks in a row when Freya was going on 7, 8 and 9 weeks old. That was a major challenge for me. I took these pictures of her in her jammies one night when he was gone. I had managed to get the big girls in bed, pack lunches and clean up the house and before I went to sleep I took 20 pics of her trying to document her smile.It is really hard to get a baby to smile and then move the camera back in front of your face to snap the picture before the smile is gone. Its preferable to have a helper get them to smile while you hold the camera. This is the best I could getI wanted to include this picture just because this expression looks so much like Alice to me. Freya smiles for her sistersEvery Wednesday night that Bryan was out of town I took the girls to Chick fila for dinner. My friend Brooke snapped these pictures of me holding Freya. I need to try to get more pictures of me holding her because I really hold her all the time. She is an exceptionally snugly baby and I never get tired of holding her. I think I look a little like my mom in this picture. Also, my iphone 4 camera is terrible. Can’t wait to get an iphone 6!I felt like Freya needed some more adventure in her life so Bryan took Alice’s jungle gym out of the attic. It’s been a good thing. I think the bright colors keep her happy on the floor longer and Norah and Alice like to play with it too so it entices them to sit by her and talk to her which in turn keeps Freya happy longer so I can get things done. Hearing the little music that this baby gym plays brings back so many memories of when Alice was a baby.

Alice in September

Our sweet little Alice seems so big now that she has a little sister. Alice loves loves loves having a baby sister but she is definitely going through an “adjustment” phase to be euphemistic. Bryan and I predicted that Alice would have the easiest time adjusting to having Baby Freya and that Norah would struggle because Norah has typically demanded a lot of attention and Alice loves babies so much. We were totally wrong. Norah has had no trouble. Maybe its because she’s at school all day living her own life whereas Alice has to compete with the baby for attention most of the time? Maybe its because Norah was already the “big” sister whereas Alice is now no longer the baby? Whatever it is, Alice is for sure under extra stress. She’s been waking up at night more often than Freya and wants to sleep in our bed. Sometimes random little insignificant (meaning they seem insignificant to me) frustrations will just set her off and she’ll just scream. We call this train wrecking. Alice will then scream “No train wreck. I not a train wreck.” She has increasingly strong opinions on all sorts of things and has demonstrated quite clearly that she is a force to be reckoned with. Alice also vacillates between wanting to be treated like a baby, held on my lap and rocked, and wanting to be completely independent, shoving us away saying “I do it.” I think she’s still trying to define her place in the family. She often asks me questions like “mama, I big? I’m a big sister. I big right?” and then just a minute later she’ll ask “Mama, I still little. I little right?” haha. The poor girl seems very confused and conflicted. To add her stress, she is considering potty training. We haven’t wanted to push it because again, she’s “adjusting,” but she asks us to teach her to to go pee pee in the potty so I think she gets that it’s what the cool kids do. I have no doubt that this period of angst and identity crisis will subside soon (at least temporarily) and in the meantime its been interesting and amusing seeing different sides of her personality emerge.

Through all her inner turmoil, Alice has managed to have a lot triumphs. She can mostly get dressed all by herself and insists on doing so. I just had parent teacher conferences at Alice’s preschool and her teacher said Alice enjoys school and loves to participate in circle time and is very willing to repeat words in Spanish. She also commented that her fine motor skills were advanced. She loves going to “escuela” and has zero separation anxiety there. On the way to school she always tells me “mama, I not cry at escuela.” Sometimes she’ll elaborate and say “I love escuela. I play with toys. My teachers love me at escuela. I have amigos.” This brings me to another big area of growth: She talks and talks and talks now. I feel like all my friends have suddenly been commenting about how much her speech has improved. A year ago I worried she was behind in her vocabulary and now she’s speaking in complex sentences and repeating new words all day long. There are a few words she has a particularly hard time saying – one is “Favorite.” She loves to tell me what her “favorite” things are but she pronounces it more like “pavebet.” For your information, her pavebet color is purple and her pavebet food is pizza. Her pavebet animals are constantly changing but she often says zebras and she always loves kitties – kitties are really in a category all of their own. I think her obsession of kitties is so cute that I impulse bought her a kitty purse (and I really rarely buy them anything if it isn’t their birthday or Christmas) and she takes it everywhere.

This is a phone pic I snapped of her with her purse when we were taking Freya to her doc appt. Alice is also in her “pavebet” outfit here. She calls it “my cute outfit” haha. Whenever she tells you she’s looking for “my cute outfit” she specifically means this one. “Mama, have you seen my cute outfit?” “mama, you take a picture of me in my cute outfit?”Alice looks out for Freya. If Freya cries longer than a minute and I haven’t attended to her needs she’ll come and nag me saying “baby Fweeya (sometimes it sounds more like ‘'Pweeya”) wants you mama” over and over till I go hold her. Alice may pick fights with Norah but she also hero worships her. She wants to do whatever Norah does and be wherever she is.On Krispy Kreme’s “talk like a pirate day” Bryan came home around 5 after being gone three nights in a row at 5 and I had dressed up the girls like pirates so he could take them right when he got home.But then Alice decided “I no want to be a pirate. I want to be lady bug!” We tried to explain that it was pirate day at Krispy Kreme’s but she wasn’t having it. Her train derailed and she screamed “I NO WANT TO BE PIRATE!!!!! I BE LADY BUG!!!!!” so she went as a ladybug and got her donut anyway.

Norah in September

I can’t believe how much Norah has grown up since school started. She has become this responsible little woman over night. Every morning she gets up, dresses herself, combs her hair (and accessorizes with a headband!), brushes her teeth and makes sure her back pack is ready to go. She is always ready for school about 20 minutes early. When she comes home from school she is excited to do her homework and does it independently for the most part. She has also been a huge help around the house – she cleans up her coloring station and picks up toys in the playroom when asked (although it helps to have an incentive like a quarter or a treat). I’ve also noticed that Norah has been trying really hard to get avoid fights with Alice which is really incredible considering how temperamental Alice has been lately. After the kids are all in bed Bryan and I are always saying “hasn’t Norah been so good?” It isn’t just at home either, Norah was student of the month in September! Whenever we go to school events several teachers have come up to us to praise Norah and comment on how friendly she is, her positive attitude and how focused she is on her school work. Everyone seems to know who she is. We’re so happy that she enjoys school and seems to be thriving.

I need to get some video of Norah talking baby talk to Freya it is so sweet how she dotes on her.Norah and Alice at the Arboretum’s Pumpkin Village

On Krispy Kreme’s “talk like a pirate day” Bryan came home around 5 after being gone three nights in a row at 5 and I promptly sent him out to take Norah and Alice out for donuts. Norah really enjoyed dressing up like a pirate. Alice ended up going as a lady bug.

Grandpa Guy, Mimi and Uncle Greg Visit

Bryan’s parents and his brother Greg came out to meet baby Freya. We packed a lot into their visit including a trip to North Park mall, a walk around White Rock lake, lunch at Torchy’s and Guy and Susan were able to see Norah and Alice’s schools. We had a lot of fun and before they left they cleaned our house till it was sparkling as a parting gift. Norah and Alice are already asking when they will come back.

After school on Friday we went swimming at the Eagles pool. Freya did not go swimming but she wore a cute swimsuit for the occasion. Guy kept Freya cool and out of the sun.

Greg and Norah (for a blast from the past see these pictures of Greg and Norah swimming together)We also went to the Dallas World Aquarium (which is really 90% rainforest, 10% aquarium) . Norah was in no mood for picturesThese next two pictures are of Alice observing monkeys while hanging from Grandpa Guy’s neck like a monkey. She’s always been so snuggly.Bryan carried Freya in the prosthetic marsupial pouchI was there too

Freya’s baby blessing

Bryan blessed Freya today at church. Her Grandpa Guy was also in the circle as well as Christian Berger, Dane Larson, Mike Empey and Steve Cramer. I think I lost my notes on Norah’s and Alice’s blessings so I thought I’d write down what Bryan hoped and prayed for today. All of their blessings have been very similar so they can also read this when they’re older if they’re curious. He blessed her to know of God’s love for her, to know of her parents and grandparents love for her, that she would be inquisitive and work hard to learn and develop herself and use her abilities to serve others, that she would have relationships that would enrich her life and seek to support her family and friends and that she would be happy and bring happiness to others.