Someone else I know is 3 months old!

Yeah, I really need to get on top of these Aurelia posts.  I've been looking back on the posts I did when Dashiell was a baby and I swear there are about a million of them!  And believe me, they were helpful back when I attempted to fill in his baby book (which hasn't seen the light of day in over 2 years, but at one time I did write down all that important stuff!).  So yes, I need to catch up with my little girl!  Or at least start her baby book. :)

Me and my girl, a couple of weeks back

Anyway, Aurelia is now 3 months old!  Actually a little older than that, but closer to 3 months than 4 months.  She's just amazing.  And she loves her mommy!  Daddy too, but mommy is the BEST.  If I hand her over to anyone else (besides daddy), within about 30 seconds she starts crying.  As soon as I take her back, silence.  Now some people might find this annoying, but I have to admit I find it awfully gratifying!  I know she won't always like me more than anyone else in the world, but for now I'll take it!

Ah, mom...so comfortable...

 Dad's not too shabby, either!

And it is just the best when her face lights up when she sees me first thing in the morning.  I wish I could bottle that joy and save it for later!  She's just so expressive all the time now - it's awesome.  Newborns are cute and all, but I'm so happy she's in a more interactive stage!

Well hello there!

"I'm so happy I can't keep my arm still!"

Hmm...really??

 

I don't know why I like this picture but it cracks me up every time I look at it!    

 More smiles

So let's see, what fun stuff has she been up to, other than smiling a lot?  Right now it's her attempt to roll over.  She hasn't gotten the hang of it yet, but she's definitely trying.  She can almost get to her belly, but doesn't know how to get her arm out of the way yet.  Dashiell hit that milestone extra early and was rolling 360 by this time, but I swear she's not far behind!  I think she just needs to work on her arm strength - she's always had pretty good head control, and she has wicked strong legs, but we need to work on that tummy time to get her arms nice and toned. ;) 

Give me a break, mom!  I'm working on it!

She's sleeping pretty well and is starting to get into a little sleep-eat-play-sleep routine, which is nice.  She still goes to bed way too late (9 if we're lucky, 9:30 or later if we're not), but when we try to put her down earlier she usually wakes up 30 minutes later wanting to play.  But we keep trying!  She usually wakes up once at around 3 or 4 am to eat, then goes back to sleep until 8-ish.  She's still in a small pack-n-play/bassinet in our bedroom, but I'm hoping to move her to her own room soon.  The problem is that it is way too convenient to be able to pick her up when she's right next to me, feed her in bed, and put her right back into her PnP.  Also, on the nights Rick is home he changes her during those late-night feeding sessions, and if I was nursing her in her own room I wouldn't be able to reach over to smack him awake when she was done eating!  I like to share the joy of waking up at 4 am. ;)

And who am I kidding?  Her room is still unfinished!  I'd like to think that now that we're out of the newborn phase and I'm coming back to the land of the living I'll have more time to finish hanging her curtains and putting art on the walls (it would also be nice to buy a real dresser for her, and not just keep all of her clothes in cloth bins on a bookshelf), but only time will tell!  It's almost done.  Really.

And can I just mention how much fun I'm having dressing her in cute little girl-clothes now?  The first couple of months it was all about convenience and she wore one-piece sleepers constantly.  Now I'm discovering all the little dresses and skirts and frilly stuff that we mostly received as gifts - it's so much fun!  I mean, just look at this:

It's a little ballerina outfit!  Ha! 

Alright, it's time to wrap this post up!  Next post: pics of both of the kids together!  Maybe.  If I can get to it. :)

Someone I know just turned FOUR!!

Dashiell is four.  FOUR!!  Holy Hannah!  And believe me, we celebrated.  And celebrated.  Then celebrated some more!  First up was his "friends" party.  We invited a group of his closest friends to the National Streetcar Museum in Lowell, and it was awesome.  We had been to the museum a couple of times before (cheap admission with lots for kids to do!) and noticed that there was a room with a big table, fridge, and popcorn maker in it, and according to the curator it was available for parties!  And it wasn't terribly expensive at all - sooo much cheaper than going to a Chuck E. Cheese or someplace like that!  And oh was I ever interested in having the party someplace other than my house - no clean up before or after?  Sign me up!

Anyway, as mentioned the party was lots of fun!  All the kids seemed to enjoy it, and the museum did a great job setting up the room.

The Party Room

That's Mr. Debonaire to you!

Riding the trolley with friends!*

Dashiell's friend C playing building roads and railways

Rick with Station Master Dashiell

The amazing cake, made by family friend Lauren

 The cake with the cute trolley center pieces the museum provided

It was a fun day!  We were slightly disappointed that the trolley schedule didn't fit with the party schedule (the party was at 1 pm, the trolley rides were at 2:20 - too early - or 4 pm - too late).  Ah well, we'll have to ride the trolley some other time!

*Funny story about the little girl sitting next to D in this picture:  Dashiell met her all of 2 times prior to his party, once at a friend's house and another time randomly in the park.  Both times were about 6 months ago.  When I asked him who he wanted at his party this year, he specifically mentioned her out of the blue.  "Can we invite K*?"  :)  It was pretty cute - how could I say no??

So that was the first celebration!  Next we have Dashiell's actual birthday.  This celebration was just for the 4 of us - Dash, Aurelia, Rick and me.  We ate D's favorite foods for dinner (Annie's mac n cheese, apple chicken sausage, corn, and strawberries), and had more cake!

 

 Do you see Aurelia eying that cake?  Already I can tell she's going to have a sweet tooth! :)

 One of the big presents he got, courtesy of his Aunts Terri and Lisa and his Grandma and Grandpa Weber.  Note that he's more interested in finding out how his bike works than he is in riding it. :)

Then the third celebration was piggy-backed on Easter (the joy of having an early-April birthday...).  The grandparents had a big Easter dinner at their house, followed by cake and presents for Dashiell.  It was a bit overwhelming, but it was fun!

We don't have many great pics of that particular celebration since it was just way too crowded in the house, but here D is eating more cake:

  

Or should I say eating more frosting?  The cake was secondary.

So Dashiell's birthday week was filled with fun and 3 different cakes.  I had to put my Weight Watchers plan on the back burner, but it was worth it!  Happy birthday to my favorite 4 year old!

Redesign, baby!

Finally - FINALLY - I have renamed and (slightly) redesigned the blog!  Still trying to work out a few kinks but it's good enough for now! 

Does this mean I'll be posting more than I have been?  Only time will tell, and if I was a betting woman I'd probably bet against it (I know myself pretty well...), but my hope is that I will be.  The renaming/redesign was hanging over my head and I was feeling a bit mired down by it.  And by the fact that I had birth announcements and thank you's to send out, which I finally did the other day (mostly - I still have a few cards to address).  So odds are I could possibly maybe post just a bit more.  Perhaps. ;)

Anyway, I hope you like the new look!  I kept the same background image because it's the coolest free design available through blogger and I was too lazy to find anything else, but I did get rid of all the side bar pictures - they seemed to be clogging up the works.  And I hope you like the new name!  No longer just the Dashiell Diaries, it was time to add Ms. Aurelia to the mix!

Enjoy!

Ack!  Where has the time gone?  Oh yeah, I have no time anymore!  But right at this moment both kiddos are napping, the house is not out of control (though I could be folding laundry instead of writing, I'll admit that much), and I'm ready for tomorrow - my first full day back at work, yikes!  So I'm going to quickly throw some pictures up here just so I can claim to still be a blogger! 

Aurelia is 8 weeks old - 8 weeks!!  And she's starting to look like a real person now, not just a wrinkly newborn.  She's smiling and making cute noises, and Dashiell was able to calm her down today by shaking a rattle, which was a first!  And which he was so excited about.  He still likes being a big brother and is always very concerned about his little sister, but there are days (um, today maybe?) when he definitely feels like he needs more attention and is super demanding. This will pass, right?  I sure hope so! 

Anyway, here are those pictures I promised!

Aurelia at one month old - I love how she just lost her sock and seems so pleased with herself!

My mom came to visit and we got a couple of good pictures of her with the kids - she was so happy to be able to visit, and we were sooooo happy to have her here!

Here she is making train tracks out of dominoes with Dashiell (in the most convenient spot ever, right in the doorway):

And here she is holding Aurelia in the kitchen:

And here's Dashiell showing off his accordion skills to her:

We also had Aurelia's baptism when mom was out here - we were much more on top of it this time around (Dash was something like 5 months old when he was finally baptized). 

Here she during the baptism:

And here we are with her Godparents, uncle David and soon-to-be aunt Lindsay:

Last but not least, one of my favorite pictures of Aurelia, where she shows off her lovely smile!

 It's the first smile I caught on camera!  Yay!

Sorry this post is short on content - at some point I'm sure I'll have more time to write about all the other stuff that's going on, like how Aurelia slept for 6.5 hours the other night (miracle!), and how Dashiell's favorite thing to ask is "what are you laughing about?"  Which he asks about 100 times a day.  Seriously.  It manages to be both funny and super annoying at the same time, in that way that only an almost 4-year-old can do.  But hey, at least you know that we're still laughing a lot around here!