Bags under Eyes

So we are settling in and when I mean settling in, I mean that the chair in our family room has imprints of my butt in it.  I've filled up my gas tank three times since Rory was born and have generally been living in a rotation of about 3 outfits... all of which consist of yoga pants.

Rory is doing great though.  He's staying awake more during the day and sleeping more at night.  I can get at least one 4 hour stretch a night before he wakes up for something to eat, then head back to bed.  He is really starting to like getting a bath, not making a peep and just relaxing in the warm water.  He cries almost every time you change his diaper.  He loves to be held (what baby doesn't) but makes doing the cooking, cleaning, and playing with Maeve difficult sometimes.  Rory had his 2 month check up 2 weeks ago and has grown leaps and bounds especially as he hadn't gained that much weight by 1 month.  He now weighs over 11 lbs and is more than a 1 lb heavier than Maeve was at 2 months.  They are about the same in height and head size.

Maeve has been a pistol as usual lately.  She's either absolutely adorable or I'm ready to pull my hair out dealing with the meltdowns.  She's been pretty great with Rory.  She is much more of a helper than ignoring him, but can of course be smothering.  Her vocabulary is hysterical these days.  She's constantly repeating some funny or ironic phrase that she has heard at school or on some tv show.  We are struggling a bit with potty training her.  I'm about to attempt the 3 day potty training where I let her run around the house naked for 3 days but I've been a bit hesitant since that sounds terrible and like I'll be scrubbing my floors and carpets all day but something has to give.  I've resorted to rewarding with M&Ms and bought a potty for the floor, which grosses me out but she seems to do better on.  She understands the potty and even goes at least once or twice a day but it is a battle getting her to sit on it.  It has to be her decision or I force her kicking and screaming.  More to come but my goal is to have her trained by the time I go back to work, which is in a week and half.  She has also been terrible in going to bed for nap and bed all of a sudden as well.  Hoping its just a phase with the new baby, the potty training, and brighter evenings as we head into Summer.

So I am back to work a week from Thursday.  I'm not looking forward to getting ready in the morning and getting kid out the door but it will be nice to be in a routine and seeing everyone from work.  I thoroughly enjoy the time I get to have off with the kids and while I wish I had summers off every year, I know that I need to work for the mental stimulation.  I just don't do enough when I'm not working.  Regardless, it has been fun and Rory really is a very good baby, just need to get him sleeping more at night/waking up less. As you are see from pictures below, he has Ryan's coloring so far.  His skin in a little darker like mine, but he has the reddish/blond hair and beautiful blue eyes.  They still could change but I'm hoping they stay. Here is a bunch of pictures from 1 - 2 months.  You can see how he has beefed up!

It's like he sucked a lemon!

 Jennifer dropped off a boatload of clothes for Rory from Luke and Aidan and with it came Halloween costumes.  I've been watching Orange is the New Black lately and her face reminds me alittle of Crazy Eyes.

Whenever we are walking or biking in the village, we have to make a stop to see the kittens at the Rescue Adoption place.  

 I see our similar noses and round heads, but not much else...  He does have a big ole smile like I do:)

Trying to capture one good picture of two kids is HARD!  I'm impressed with any families that have perfect family pictures and with the photographers, who can capture these shots!

With the time off, we've taken advantage of lots of family time by going to Strong Museum and the Science Museum, taking lots of walks, playground trips, and picnic lunches in the yard.  Here was Ryan and Maeve building a motorcycle out of foam blocks at the Science Museum.  A couple more days left until back to work so I plan on enjoying them.  

3 + 1 = Family

I'm very pleased to introduce Rory James Daley.  He arrived on March 26th at 7:27 PM, weighing in at 7lbs and 14oz.  He took his time arriving but then once he decided it was time to make an entrance, he did it with a fury.  I know we didn't know what we were having and there is that 50/50 chance that it was a boy, but I was truly shocked when the doctor handed him over to me and told me it was a "he".  I practically lost my breath as I was so surprised.  I put it at a 95% probability it was a girl just because the pregnancy was very similar with Maeve.  However we are very quickly adjusting to life as a family of four.  On Tuesday, Ryan was back at work and Maeve was at school so Rory and I got to spend our first couple of days together.  It's so funny being so busy with work to having days fly by just sitting in the chair with my feet up holding a sleeping baby.  I'm going to enjoy the next 11 weeks.  He currently has blondish red hair and has blue/gray eyes.   We will see if they stay that way.    

 A couple things I've learned thus far...
- Adding one additional person has doubled my laundry (the math just doesn't make sense)
- Changing diapers on boys are much more difficult than girls (I've had two unfortunate incidents thus far and one of them included Rory peeing on his face a little - the kid is quick)
- I am so blessed to have such generous family and friends.  I had a couple outfits, mainly gender neutral, that would work if we did have that elusive boy.  It has only been a week and this kid's closet is stocked.  It's amazing how quickly things shift from pink to blue.

 

I was going in to get induced on Wednesday so Tuesday I tried to wrap up work as quickly as possible to grab Maeve and spend some quality time with her before she went from only child to big sister.  I picked her up from school and we stopped at Mary Claire's for a cupcake.  She wasn't too keen on sharing with me and pretty much ate most of it herself.  She left me some of the cake part since the frosting is her favorite.  

Maeve has been adjusting pretty well to her brother and having to share her mom.  She gets that he has to eat often and after every noise he makes, she asks "What's he saying?"  She's been dealing with terrible two's as well, screaming, hitting, and not listening.  We are trying to be as understanding as possible, but she got sent to bed last night right after her tub for hitting.  The majority of the time is she is pretty good.  Last weekend she got up and just said that she had to clean the walls.  She grabbed some toilet paper and a stool and started wiping down the walls.  I hope her need to help clean our house continues FOREVER.  She continues to just be a sponge.  She's started reading books to us; some from memory and others by just narrating to the pictures.  She definitely is entertaining and loves a crowd.  Jon and Al were over the other night and it was the Maeve Show during dinner.  At one point, I called her a ham and she just cracked up over that.  She kept saying "I'm a ham" and bursting into giggles.

Ryan brought her into the hospital the day after Rory was born and she did great.  She wanted to hold him but was quick to say put him back in his crib.  She was more interested in the hospital bed and the cartoons on tv, but she was interested in him and very sweet.  She will greet him with a "Hey Cutie".  I hope this love continues.

Counting Down

So our house is clean and orderly, laundry is caught up, some meals are prepared, and we are just waiting...
Waiting for our new arrival to join us.  I'm scheduled to be induced on Wednesday, which is partly because I'm ready to have this baby and partly because the sooner I can have this baby, the sooner I can start my break from work.  The doctor won't let me go more than a week past my due date so it was just easier to schedule, particularly since I had a relatively easy induction with Maeve since I went past my due date with her too.

It really has been crazy busy, for both Ryan and I, and we are both looking forward to the perfect little excuse for us to pause and just relish in the quality family time ahead of us.  Plus, I wouldn't mind being able to sleep in my back or stomach again and to partake in a beer or glass of wine.  I'm constantly counting my blessings at how I or the baby haven't had any health issues, but this 2nd pregnancy was definitely more tiring than the first.  I'm guessing it's some combination of being a couple years older and having a 2 year old to keep up with.  I've pretty much given up tub duty since Ryan's traveling has stopped.  Bending over a bath tub to wash Maeve sounds like I'm climbing Mt. Everest, as does flipping over in bed from side to side.

As for Maeve, she's constantly keeping us moving.  Unfortunately, one of her teacher's, Miss Denise, resigned a week ago.  She was Maeve's favorite and it breaks my heart as each day since she's been gone, Maeve has brought her up.  We've tried to tell her the truth, but you can tell it doesn't set in.  Fortunately, Miss Denise's daughter Amanda is our babysitter so we are hoping to schedule a playdate soon so Maeve can get in some Miss Denise time.

Other than that, just keeping busy.  I'll keep you all posted regarding Baby #2...

Ready for Spring

As much as I do enjoy winter and beautiful white snow, I'm getting alittle tired of bitter cold and squeezing into my warmest puffy coat with this growing belly.  But I digress, a lot continues to happen around here but most of it revolves around keeping up with Maeve and counting down until Baby #2 arrives.  I've been having issues with my laptop which is why no blogging has happened lately.  So no pictures for now, but working on it.

Sp to catch up... We had a wonderful Christmas, spending lots of time with family and friends.  Unfortunately, we had a lot of one-off things happen that caused some headaches: Ryan got into a car accident in my car so I was without it for about 2 1/2 weeks (fortunately he was not hurt), everyone in the house was dealing with colds, we had a roof leak that came through the family room ceiling, a frozen pipe during the bitter cold streak (but nothing burst), etc, etc, etc.  We started waking up each day just asking what was going to happen today.  Fortunately, nothing tragic or major and we are happy to move into 2014 with optimism for another good year.

Lately we've all been so tired with work and this cold weather that when we are home, we aren't doing much.  Ryan's been on a travel bender so has been out of town about half of the time the last 6 weeks.  He took yesterday off so they could have a Maeve/Daddy day, which was great.  Maeve wouldn't stop talking all week leading up to it.  They went to the Science Museum and I went and met them for lunch.  Then they both took naps and played the rest of the day... a perfect day.

Our little girl continues to be downright funny most days.  I was talking to her teacher the other day, who confirmed my belief that she is a woman in a 2 year old body.  She talks like an adult, which is probably a reflection of how Ryan & I talk to her.  She often tries to quiz us on letters, numbers, and colors when she's in the tub just like how we quiz her.  When she does have her bad moments, it's typically a meltdown after we turn off the tv or tell her it's time for bed.  She fully transitioned from her crib to a twin bed in her new bedroom a couple weeks ago and has done pretty well.  It's a bit of a battle as she was so, so easy to put to bed before and we didn't have to worry about her climbing out of the crib and exploring during the night.  Now she wants to go in her "big girl bed" but it usually includes extending the bedtime routine with requests for milk, another story... you name it.  But she's been in there for over a month now and doing pretty well.  She's scared me a couple times by coming into our room and startling me awake but she hasn't fallen down the stairs or anything like that so all is well.  She did fall out of bed one night and fortunately she went back to sleep and didn't fall out again, but we might need more pillows to block her in.

Her imagination just blows my mind.  Every day she's coming up to us in the middle of playing with some animal (a lion, bear, a fox, you name it) that is over there or around the corner.  She isn't scared just animated and very serious about how we have to run or stop it.  She's like a sponge in terms of her vocabulary.  She remembers lines from tv shows and memorizes books we read.  She'll recall them at the funniest times.  Needless to say, we laugh alot... it's a fun, but exhausting age.

Baby Daley #2 is due to arrive in less than three weeks.  The doctor told me last week to make sure my bags are packed... baby is head down and low.  Maeve was the same way and I had to get induced so not banking on an early arrival, but happy we made it through Ryan's busy travel so that he will be there for baby's birth.  I'm definitely counting down the days... I'm dealing with some hand/ankle swelling and a sore back and am pretty exhausted at end of the work day and especially the work week.  Looking forward to how this arrival will change things around here...