Latest project.

Here's the latest home improvement project.  I took two photos that I took of the girls, each around 3 months old:

and uploaded them to Mpix, since they were giving me a massive discount via a discount code.  I ordered them in large sizes (16x20) which came last week.  I stopped by Michael's and happened to hit up a frame sale, and basically got two super-large, matted frames for the price of one!  They are now framed and ready to hang over the couch in the living room.... which has to wait, since the frames themselves need hanging wire, and I am all out....

But I really love these two pictures.  I'm glad I was able to get them around the same age with the same sort of background.

My next goal is to rework this photo

and then get it framed for each of their rooms.
For now.

Growth Table

I know some of you are curious (I was too!)

Age	Stella	Angela
Birth	8 lb 3, 21 in	7 lb 5, 20 in
1 mo	11 lb, 21.75 in	11 lb 4, 21.5 in
2 mo	13 lb 4, 24 in	13 lb 13, 22.5 in
3 mo	14 lb 8, 24.5 in	15 lb 6, 24.5 in
4 mo	16 lb 8, 26 in	16 lb 10, 25.25 in
5 mo	18 lb, 26.75 in	18 lb, 25.75 in
6 mo	20 lb 2, 27.5 in	20 lb, 26.5 in
8 mo	22 lb 10, 29 in	22 lb 8, 28.5 in
10 mo	23 lb 11, 30 in	24 lb, 29.5 in
12 mo	25 lb 4, 31.5 in	26 lb 8, 30 in
15 mo	28 lb 8 ,  33 in	29 lb 4, 31 in
18 mo	29 lb, 34.5	31 lb 12, 33 in
21 mo	31 lb 1, 35.5
24 mo	34 lb, 36 in

 

Angela started out smaller, but she is definitely up there in height and already surpassed her big sister on weight gain (my little aggressive eater).

Accomplishment	Stella	Angela
Smiled	1 mo	1.5 mo
Rolled over	Front to back 4 mos Back to front 5 mos	Front to back 3 mos Back to front 3.5 mos
Slept through the night	2 mos	1.5 mos
Laughed	5 mos	3 mos
Found my hands and feet	3 mos	3 mos
First tooth	5.5 mos	5.5 mos
Sat up	6 mos 9 mos	6 mos 9 mos
Clapped my hands	8 mos	10 mos
Pulled up	9 mos	8 mos
Stood by myself	10 mos	9 mos
Crawled	8 mos	7 mos
Walked	12 mos	9.5 mos
First words	12 mos	10.5 mos
First haircut	19 mos

 

I'll update this accordingly and let you know when I do.

Same and different.

It's really hard to not compare your kids.  Here's some of the things I have noticed so far:

Stella NEVER spit up.  Ever.  Never used bibs or burp cloths until she started making a mess with solid foods.  Angela?  I go through my supply on a near-daily basis.

They looked very similar up until about two months of age.  Their birth photos are nearly identical. 

Angela sticks her tongue out so much more than Stella did.  (It could have something to do with the fact that Stella may have/had slight tongue-tie.)

They are both super eaters.  In every sense of the word.  Angela and Stella both nursed like champs.  And Stella currently eats nearly everything offered to her - her current fave meal is pork Pad Thai.

Angela loves her pacifier;  Stella gave it up early.  (Some people give us a confused look when I don't say binky... in our family, the paci is a ciucceta - guessing at the spelling - which I believe is the Italian dialect word for it.)

Angela is much better at the whole "drowsy but awake" go-to-sleep process.  Stella had to be held or rocked until she was completely out - she'd cry insanely if she wasn't asleep and you put her down - but Angela will pretty much put herself to bed. 

A few minutes to myself.

Every day I look forward to a few minutes to myself.  They usually come sometime after lunch, when Stella goes for her nap and hopefully Angela too.

It is very hectic with two kids.  Everyone tells you it will be busy, but multiply that by ten and it is more accurate.  Between nursing, preparing meals, changing twice the number of diapers, fighting with the attention-seeking two-year-old while the baby is crying because she's tired, it is not easy.

The past few days have been wonderful, though, as nap times are starting to line up and those afternoon moments get longer.  I finally have a few moments to sit down and just watch TV while eating my lunch, without having to think about getting the laundry folded or planning my grocery shopping.  It is quite difficult, though, to turn off the brain at night - I end up reading a little longer than I probably should, just so I can go to sleep!!

So, what do I do during the rare quiet times?  Sometimes I just sit and eat my lunch in peace, watching Modern Family (a show I never saw, but so many friends have told me it's good I've got to try it out) or Big Brother (I seem to miss the first half hour or so at night due to Stella's bedtime).  Sometimes I work on projects that need completing - photo editing, decorating, etc.  Sometimes I clean because it's easier to do when the kids are not around, like dusting or mopping.

Here are the links to the latest photos on Flickr.  I can't believe that little mushie is going to be 4 months old so soon!!  The time has flown by.

Month 1 on Flickr

Month 2 on Flickr

Month 3 on Flickr

Time to get my life back in order.

So every June, my house becomes a pit.  Mail, bills, paperwork pile up.  Various cleaning chores go undone.  Laundry starts to live in every corner.

I'll get to it when school is out.  This is my mantra.

Well, add to that two children.  The time to accomplish the smallest of tasks is now eaten by the tears of a two year old and the giggles of a newborn.  Why clean, when I can nibble on chunky baby toes or build a block tower?

Today I take my house back.  I have a plan, no, a battle strategy, to get me through the tough spots (like our master bathroom) and to streamline my day.  I will not be sidetracked by terrible reality TV, I will drink plenty of water, I will accomplish what I set out to do.  And yes, I will update the blog with stories and pictures of an adorable little three-month-old (as well as some of her big sister).

How will I do this, you ask?  How can you do this when you want to kiss baby bellies and create Play-Dough shapes?

Daycare.  :-)

Two days of daycare, and my house will be immaculate.  If only to stay that way for a few days.

First few weeks - pictures

Click the photo below to view the latest pictures in my Flickr album.

Everyone is doing well, Stella is adjusting to life as a big sister - she kisses Angela on the head every chance she gets!!

Day One.

So I finally have a moment to sit down and talk about the last few days.

Neither Gian or I slept much Thursday night;  he got home late (well, early, since he's been on nights for a week) and then couldn't sleep, and I had such anxiety of course.  Five o'clock am came very quickly!!  My sister came with us to the hospital (which was hysterical, as she had to nestle herself between the two carseats in the back seat of the CRV), as she really wanted to be there for the actual birth.  Such a trooper at five am!!

We went up to maternity, Hol went to the waiting are (where she was able to watch cable, a real treat for her) and Gian and I got check in.  I have four lovely bracelets now for the occasion.  I waited with the fetal monitor on, which only built up the anxiety.  By the time they wheeled me into the OR I was a mess!!  But my doctor was awesome - I seriously love her and recommend her to everyone - and the anesthesiologist was very bubbly for an early morning spinal.  The spinal was quite different from the epidural, by the way.  I could still sort of "feel" which I couldn't do with the epidural.  VERY strange.  So up went the curtain around 8:15, incision at 8:20, and baby girl Delfini was born at 8:34.  Gian got to announce it, and we both looked at each other, like, Really?  no way it was a girl.

You can tell from the lack of name that we really thought we were having a boy, and hadn't put as much effort into the girl's name.

I was in recovery for a couple hours before getting moved to my room, which coincidentally was the same room I started my labor in with Stella two years ago.  How funny to come full circle.  In recovery, we started discussing names.  No decisions as yet, though.

My parents came by just after lunch with Stella;  how funny to see her around the room and to look at her new sister!  She just sort of kept looking at Angela with this awful frown on her face.

Still no name.

We had gone through various versions of relative names from Gian's side of the family, including the forerunner before the c-section, Giuseppina (which would have had Josie for a nickname or Pina, in Italy)... but that got chucked out after all, and we went back to the drawing board.  We kept two family names in the end - Angela, for Gian's dad (which would have been Arcangelo had we had a boy, as a middle name) and Lucia, for both Gian's mom and his Saint Day, Dec. 13.  We had originally shied away from names of relatives who were not grandparents and such (Angela is also the name of Gian's close cousin in Italy) but we really liked the connection to his father.

His father really liked it, too. :-)

So today was once again a blur of feeding, sleeping, changing a poopy diaper, and visiting with family.  One of the highlights of the day was napping around 4:30 - me, Angela, and our nephew Luigi, each in our own bed (Lou was on the pull-out chair). 

The other highlight was getting a photo of the entire family with Dr. Bhangoo, who delivered both of our children.  (photo to come, I promise!).  It worked out that she is on call this weekend, so she dropped by to say hi while my parents had Stella here.  I think it's really cool that the same doctor delivered both children, and that they have a picture with the first person they met in their lives.

Ready for Round 2?  You bet.