Raising Beach Beauties

I knew this day would come eventually...

The question is really, how long will it last? As of late, Marley has had a love/hate relationship with sand. We picked her up early from preschool today and went to the beach. When we told her we were going to go swimming at the beach, she said something about the sand so I asked her, "are you going to walk on the sand today?" and she just threw up her hands and said, "I don't know!". And that kind of sums it up, you just don't know until you get there how she is going to feel about it that day.

Here she is "building a castle for the princess!", I can't believe she is touching sand!

Maya also had her first taste of the ocean. This was her 2nd or 3rd trip to the beach but her first time putting her toes in the ocean. Daddy took Marley for her first dip when she was 2 months old. Ok, we're a little lazier the 2nd time around, but at least we had the camera with us to capture Maya's first dip as well! And she did sooooo much better than Marley did! It startled her at first but she didn't cry at all. I love how she is looking up at him with so much trust in her eyes! Little does she know she's only 6 months away from him dunking her under!

She's almost pointing to the water - "put me back in daddy!"

Bye Bye Grandma T!

Grandma T left yesterday to go home to her puppies (that's what we told Marley). Every night Grandma would talk to "papa" (Grandpa T) to find out how her dogs were doing. Marley will ask on her toy phone, "how are the puppies?" when we ask her if she's talking to Grandpa!

It was really great to have the help around the house for the last two weeks - I had my first real taste of being a mom of two yesterday afternoon when they left for the airport. Marley refused to nap but other than that hang-up, we did ok. Part of me looks forward to Maya being more interactive with Marley but with that comes her being more mobile and that makes me nervous!

Happy Birthday Aiden!

I was hoping to get a cute photo of Aiden & Marley together but if you didn't already know this, Marley hates sand. Hates it. Today she wouldn't even walk on it with her shoes on. She sat on momma's lap most of the time and then decided she could hang out in Maya's beach bassinett. Aiden on the other hand was having a good ol' time hanging out in the water. Did Marley want to swim? No. She much prefers the pool. I'm not so sure "beach beauties" is the most appropriate title for our blog. I told Stu maybe we should move to Montana and raise Snow Bunnies?   

We're growing!

Well, at least Maya is (I'd like to think I'm getting smaller!). She weighted in at 5 pounds, 14 ounces - just an ounce shy of her birth weight and up 11 ounces since last week (she was 5 pounds 3 ounces when she left the hospital). She has also grown in length - she as 18" at birth and was 19 3/4 inches today when she was measured. It's true - kids grow up too fast. 

We gave Maya a bath last night so she would be fresh & clean for her appointment this morning. I found this old photo of Marley - can't you tell they are sisters? Just in case you can't tell - Maya is the photo on the top, Marley is the photo on the bottom.

Photo Shoots

Marley has adjusted pretty well to being a big sister. She was home for three days over the weekend and went back to preschool yesterday. She was pretty cranky when we picked her up yesterday and even cranky when we went to the pool. She is staying home today in hopes of getting a good nap and "snapping out of it". It could just be the idea of being a big sister has finally caught up to her? She does love to give the baby kisses and pat her little head (gently!).

Maya is doing great at home and has her first doctors appointment tomorrow. We're all anxious to make sure she is gaining weight. I think her cheeks are starting to fill out a little more. She sleeps ALL THE TIME. Except between the hours of midnight and 3am. Then she isn't so much awake as she just wants to eat and be held. We have a little Amby Hammock bed in our room which is supposed to be very comfortable for newborns. Maya thinks momma's arms are the most comfortable place. So far her favorite thing is snuggling. Her least favorite thing is diaper changes. 

I tried to get some fun shots of Maya yesterday but she wasn't having it. The girl sleeps for 23.5 hours a day but it was that .5 hour that I tried to get some shots and she was NOT happy with me. Today I tried my best to knock her out with milk so I could get some cute sleepy baby shots. I also have always wanted to do this "baby in a cool chair shot". I don't really have any cool chairs though - just our unusual dining room chairs, so I took that outside to get some of the jungle in the background. I didn't realize just how hard it was to line up the shot so that the chair wasn't tilted in the frame - I didn't realize that until I was editing. I may try to redo that shot some other time. For now, my little model can take a break.

Marley was watching the action from the sidelines and was wondering what in the world I was doing to her baby sister. I think she was just grateful that it was Maya and not her who was being forced to sit in the chair and be good. And I won't be winning the mother of the year award with this photo of Marley - it was 10am, she's still in her jammies and they are covered with her morning breakfast (which her daddy, not I, cooked for her!). Oh, and I had given her the binky to keep her quiet. Nice, huh? 

How fun is this? A little butterfly action thanks to Marley's new puppet from the butterfly farm. I'd love to get some more images like this but Maya woke up shortly after I started shooting and was not too happy about laying on that bug...

Sisters

Day Six, cont.

What a great day! First I will give an update on Maya since I have such good news. After dropping the girls off back at the house, I went back to the hospital. As I walked into the nursery toward Maya...things looked a little "off" - first, she was completely naked and had a penis. Um, yeah...that wasn't my baby. She had been kicked out of her little bed! She was wrapped up nice and tight in her own little bassinet - free of the bili lights, free of the heart monitor, the thermometer, everything! My baby has gone wireless! I spoke with Dr. Lisby who is very happy with how she is doing. They will test her jaundice levels tomorrow morning and as long as they are not substantially worse, she will get to come home tomorrow afternoon!!! Her levels dropped down to 12 this morning and if they are back up around 16 or 17 tomorrow, it will be back to the bili lights and another day in the hospital. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that they do not go any higher!

Marley had fun at the butterfly farm, although it was the gift shop that was the biggest hit. Not all the toys, but a big, black dog named Oscar that we had problems pulling her away from. The girl gets so annoyed with her own dog, but any other dog is pretty cool. Oscar was a good sport and just layed there for her to pet and pet and pet. No pictures of Oscar to share, but I did get a few good ones of her enjoying the butterflies (damn bugs are too fast to capture on film). I'll add some more shots of our visit to her shutterfly page.

 

 

Day Three

The last 24 hours have been awesome! Maya came off the ventilator yesterday and I expected to see her under this plastic dome hoodie when I went to see her last night. Stu warned me it was kind of scary looking so I was so excited to see it wasn't there. She had it on for a few hours during the day yesterday but was doing so well that they were able to take it off. Now she just has the regular old oxygen tube which is a great sign!

This morning was the best though. When I first got there, her nurse told me she was ready for a diaper change so I got to do that myself! Mommy's first diaper change. =) Then, they asked me if I wanted to hold her! I didn't think I would get to hold her until tomorrow or maybe even Tuesday so I jumped at the chance. I'm so glad Stu wasn't there with me - while they were getting her ready to be held, she started to cry and I just know if he had been there he would have made them stop and leave her alone. Mommy is a little more selfish than daddy and I didn't care, I just couldn't believe I got to finally hold her again. So we rocked for about 1/2 an hour before she had to go back in her bassinet. She really doesn't like to be disturbed very much, she cried for awhile when I was holding her but I found if I stayed still and didn't talk to her, she would calm down and fall asleep. She tried to open her eyes a few times, we still don't know her eye color. She's so cute when she relaxes her face and lifts up her (non-existent) eyebrows. Her doctor wasn't there yet this morning so I didn't get any further updates. Unforutnately though, she does look a little jaundice today. The nurse told me they would check her this afternoon to see if she needed to go under the sun lamp thingies (again, don't ask me medical terms!).

Now on to a Marley update! Actually, I just need an excuse to put some photos on here of our "eldest daughter". Driving home from the hospital yesterday morning we saw a sign for a yard sale adversiting "Baby Items, Maternity Clothes, Playhouse & Slide" - the slide is what really caught our eye so we did a little turn around and followed the signs. Our deck space around the house is slowly turning into a mini-Chuckie Cheese and a slide is the only thing we were really wishing we had. They were asking too much for it but you know, when you live on an island and you don't have a Toys R Us that you can just run down to, you do what you have to do. Stu picked it up this morning and Marley had a BLAST for the first 10 minutes....until she fell off the slide and now won't go near it. I think we just need to get her little friend Ella over here (who is the most active toddler I've ever met - the girl is two weeks older than Marley and already doing summersaults). If anyone can show Marley how to do something, Ella is the girl for the job. By the way, it's a "pj day" for Marley - hence the onsie. It's almost 4:30 here and she's still in her pj's. I'm just breaking her in to the new routine for when Maya comes home!