Lily is a Star

It turns out, bringing a baby to a political event is like bringing a gun to a knife fight. Here she is with Congresswoman Suzan DelBene. She performed like a champ and even got her Mama extra time to talk to the Congresswoman. Good job Lily!

Lily has been to two political events now and has already met with our Mayor. Everyone that meets her falls in love with her very gentle spirit (ha! they haven't seen her when she hasn't been fed for an hour!)

Jamisen continues his path towards big brotherhood. He got into her clothes this week and we think he makes a lovely girl. He certainly has the eyelashes for it!

Here he is, reading his new Potty book to his sister. He was so funny explaining the plot to her.

 

He wanted her to sit by him this morning. It went ... okay.

Here he is trying to help her put her binky back in. Am I the only one that sees the look of terror in her eyes?

We're hoping that Jamisen does not start to exhibit this type of behavior with his little sister. Maybe if we left him alone with her? Eeek!

Lily and I have been at work almost full time this entire week. I'm not terribly efficient (breastfeeding every 2 hours will make one highly inefficient) but it's good to be back even though I'm wickedly sleep deprived. I need Bramble Berry like I need to breathe. I love the energy there and I love the job that I'm lucky enough to do. Check out the soap I made this week:

Can you believe I get paid to do that stuff?! Amazeballs! Lily also had her first photo shoot at Bramble Berry.

It turned out genius ... of course. I mean, babies + soap = perfection.

Proud of Daddy!

We are all so proud of Daddy. He just finished his first triathlon! He decided to race just 2 weeks ago and did 3 trainings to prep. He did the Lake Padden Triathlon. He raced in the 'Competitive' category and we don't know how he did yet in terms of his overall finish but we do know how he did with his family: he's a winner with us! The race consisted of: Swim 1/2 mile, Bike 21 miles, Run 5.2 miles

Chris wasn't happy with his finish time (2:08) but his family absolutely disagrees. It was an admirable finish for his first triathlon. And, he had some technical difficulties ... his bike chain was off AND he got horrible cramps on the run. His next tri will be a slam dunk.

Big thanks to Uncle Erik for spending his morning with us, helping to wrangle children, find parking spaces and generally be all around awesome.

We had a super fun night with our friends Lisa, Deron and their son Oskar. It turns out that all 2 year old boys like water; or at least our two do!

The boys played extremely well together. Jamisen even mostly shared! He did push poor Oskar over a couple times but then helped him up again (?). It was a strange teamwork thing and Oskar really did amazing with this abuse. He is such an even tempered little guy. 

We really like his parents too so hopefully there will be many play dates in our future. We are so thankful for our yard and our home. It is perfect for hosting people and it's so easy to have a fun time outside.

Messy Father's Day Fun

I am the luckiest girl in the world with my family. I would choose my Dad over and over again if I had to build our family from the ground up. Many of the traits that have served me well in life, I received and learned (by example) from him. So Dad, I love you! Of course, there's not just my Dad for Father's Day now; my sweet husband Chris is an amazing Father. I'm so lucky that he wanted to marry me (!) and have little ones together. I feel blessed and loved every day because of the choice we made: to create a family together.  

We hosted a Father's Day Weekend at our house with a revolving door of guests. We were also celebrating my Mom's release from the hospital. She was admitted early this week with an antibiotic-resistant strain of ... something(!). The Doctors never were able to fully culture it so it's a mystery but either way, we were so happy to have her out of the hospital and home.  It was crazy stressful to have Mom in the hospital with a newborn at home because I couldn't be there as much as I would have normally. Cheriss and Erik to the rescue!

 

Erik was in the ER with Mom most of the time while I waited in the parking lot, eating food from the vending machine and watching Miss Lily Mt. Versuvius on me (actual picture of the vomit all over her face after 4 hours sitting in the car below). Erik also visited her for hours each day, brought her food, and got her all checked out of the hospital. Sister in Law Cheriss also spent hours with Mom at the hospital. We are all happy and relieved she is out.

 In addition to coming to Mom's rescue, we are quite proud of Erik for catching his Personal Best (that's PB for those of you in the know) this weekend. Check out his fish!!! And, we're a catch and release family so no, we didn't eat it. It's a Small Mouth Bass and Grandpa was there to catch the proud moment on camera.

Thanks to Pinterest, I had quite a few good ideas for how to keep our little toddler busy this weekend. I have 215 pins (!!) on my Toddler Fun Pinterest board right now. You can check 'em out or follow the board here.

   

This Water Blob tutorial was genius. The kids **loved** it; loved it! They were soooooo happy. And, besides a few small tears as the afternoon wore on, the water blob held up remarkably well and is still in tact today. 

 PS - No, that's not Lily all grown up already. That's Miss Ava, Jamisen's first love. They've held hands so we're already planning their nuptials.  

We had a hot dog (and for the vegetarians, faux dogs) and a marshmallow roast. It was Jamisen's first marshmallow and he was quite enamored with all the sugar and gooey and warm.  

We also made the Faiola Family Tradition cake (we really should pick easier traditions that don't take so many hours to make) - Butterscotch Butterscotch Cake. You can find the full recipe here. It's clearly a sign that we adore my Dad because we keep making this cake, over and over, for him. Sister in Law, Cheriss, was the hero this time. She made 80% of the cake and just let me swoop in for the final caramelizing (butterscotching!) the pecans and of course, the eating. 

I call this the "I'm kissing. I'm kissing. I'm smothering. I'm smothering." picture. Jamisen is still a little unsure of this interloper that has come into his family. Overall, I think the transition is going well though and I continue to be thankful for two happy, healthy children. We are blessed.

Lily's First Two Weeks

Baby Lily has proven herself to be a model baby. She eats constantly and sleeps the rest of the time. She is barely awake in between napping and eating. Actual feeding schedule from Thursday night.

 Nighttime ranges between really great (woo hoo! Feeding at 11, 2 and 5!) and horrible (boo hiss! feeding at 11, 12, 1, 3, and 5 or any combo in between).

She has developed a diaper rash, no matter how many times we change her diaper and try to keep her dry. We've done Gloves in a Bottle to lay down a protective silicone skin protector, Desitin, naked time (for the record, every single naked time has ended up with pooping or peeing on Mommy or the protective blankets). This is a typical baby thing; they have such sensitive skin. But, it's sad and stressful to see as a protective parent.

Her brother is in the middle of the 'Terrific Twos'. I swear, he has a temper tantrum about something almost every day. He doesn't want a bandaid on his bleeding toe. He doesn't want to say 'Please.' He is upset that we are making him not pour green juice all over the floor. You name it, he's flailed on about it. It's challenging on both Chris and I. We haven't figured out the best reaction - come down hard and discipline? Try to be patient? Diversion?

Grandma came up for an ENTIRE WEEK and saved my life. She did such an amazing job taking care of Jamisen, the garden, the house and ME. Jamisen asked for her several mornings after she left. He will be so happy when she arrives back next week to visit and help out for a few days. We are lucky to have her support (and all the Grandparents!).

He is rather hilarious about wanting to touch her. He loves to touch her, pat her head, touch her face, her hands, her feet. He has no idea how to be gentle with her so we don't leave him alone with her. He has taken to trying to "help" her eat. If she doesn't want to latch onto my breast for feeding, he will come by and shove her face into my breast, and command "Eat." Sometimes, he even puts a stern "NOW!" after that. "Eat Now!"

He loves our reading time. He really has turned into a voracious reader and adores reading time. He plops up onto my bed (that's right, it's my bed since Chris is sleeping on an air mattress on the floor, having been kicked out of bed by Little Miss Lily), and grabs 15 or so books, piling them onto the bed one by one, and then we read a few books. He tries to get one more book, "Just one more! One more!" before having to go to bed.

 We read every morning, before naptime and before bedtime.

I just ordered $100 worth of truck books (!!!) and am considering making them prizes for peeing and pooping in the toilet (10 stickers = 1 book?). Maybe little cars at 5 stickers and then 10 stickers gets a book?

I did have one mini setback this week with the c-section recovery and ended up on bed rest for two days. I will admit that day one of being stuck in bed was not a hard ship (having people bring me food AND change the baby? Yes, please!) but by day two, I was ready to be done! Today, we went to Farmer's Market and I've been out and about with no ill effects thus far. This is me after a little bit of blood loss - a little pale. And I know the baby looks like she is trying to suffocate herself, but really, I promise, she's fine.

We're looking forward to a great rest of the weekend. We have a play date today with our dear friend Sasha. His Mommy, Heather, helped plant our garden so we're going to send her home with lots of these amazing veggies. We have more than we could ever use! And, we like to share.

Farm School

Jamisen has been going to farm school for a month now. It's this great little outdoor activity, run by Common Threads Farms. Common Threads runs quite a few school gardens around Whatcom County and they do an amazing job introducing children to healthy eating habits, teaching them where food comes from and generally showing them that nutrition can and should be fun and delicious.

Jamisen loves animals and there are geese, chickens, turkeys, chickens and sheep on the farm (in addition to a garden). It's this little oasis in downtown Fairhaven that's tucked in behind two houses. You wouldn't notice it if you didn't know where to go but they've got an amazing thing going for them.

They cook a meal every single class - sometimes it's with eggs from their chickens. In this case, they were making hummus. No, I don't know if they grew the garbanzo beans. Somehow, I doubt it.

Jamisen chows down! He will eat ANYTHING and everything if he has a hand in making it. We found that out with our green kale juice in the morning =)

Then, they wash their dishes in a makeshift little camping set up. Jamisen knows the routine now.

Yes, Jamisen is eating a raw radish, straight from the garden. He is an adventurous little guy!

Meet Lily Leah

In the end, the name wasn't hard. We probably knew it all along; paying honor to two strong women in my life was the way to go. Lily, my grandma on my Mom's side and Leah, grandma on my Dad's side, were both strong, strong women and are fantastic namesaskes for their great-great grandaughter.  

Baby Lily

Baby Lily came home on Friday and our lives have been turned upside down ... in a good way! She is adjusting to our family with aplomb, sleeping all day and staying up all night. We're looking forward to that pattern switching. She seriously stays up nightly until 2:30 a.m., crying, eating ... crying ... eating ... crying .... eating. One of these nights, I'm going to join her in at least one of those activities.

Sunny outfit for a sunny girl

Baby Lily is quite small, under six pounds so even her newborn clothes don't fit her. She is teensy tiny but is working hard to grow, eating every one to two hours. She grew a whole five ounces in 24 hours after arriving home and is trying t0 break the world record for feedings in a 24 hour period. I spend a lot of time sitting down, feeding her, but the silver lining to that is that I'm reading a bunch of magazines that have languished for months.

Lily gives Jamisen a present

Many mothers told me that Jamisen would do much better if baby Lily gave him some presents so every day that he visited her in the hospital or when she got home. We followed this advice (and it's come in handy several times this week already). She gave him a train set (pictured above) and a 1-button remote controlled car. He was much more excited about the train set. He's all boy - obsessed with anything that has a motor (cars, trains, boats, planes, helicopters).

Jamisen looks a little unsure

Overall, Jamisen is adjusting to baby Lily but hasn't been perfectly princelike in his actions. We've seen some hitting (he has hit, Grandma, Mom, Dad) and some generic acting out since the new baby came home. Overall, he's more curious than anything. He likes to touch her head and point to her facial features and naming them, "Nose, eyes, ears".

Grandma and Grandpa are instantly smitten.

Both sets of Grandparents are beyond over the moon thrilled at the new addition. Grandpa Winston has been overseas for the last week but we can't wait to have him meet his newest grandbaby.

My Mom is staying with us for an undetermined time period as we adjust to two children and I try to make it back to some semblance of work in a few weeks. With a little girl who can't sleep for longer than 90 minutes without food, that might prove more challenging than it sounds. I'm thankful for such a great family support network on both sides.

Baby's first outing

We ventured out the day after we got home from the hospital to the park for a playdate with one of Jamisen's friends. It was probably stupid on my part to think we could do that. I paid for it, pain-level wise, later. In the photo above, you an see Jamisen playing in the captain's lookout. You can't tell but I'm trying to figure out where to go sit down to feed our little teensy weensy hungry hippo of a baby girl. The entire venture was possibly worth it because we ended with a trip to Menchies for frozen yogurt. I was pleasantly surprised by their Popcorn flavored yogurt (I know, it sounds disgusting but it was a nice mixture of salt and sweet).

Reading for three

Our nighttime routine has changed a little because we have one extra reader. Jamisen asks for Lily to be put beside him for reading time and has seamlessly integrated his little sister into his bedtime routine. Overall, the new addition to our family has gone about how we thought it would with the exception of her size and feeding schedule. Chris and I are really, really tired. We're looking forward to fattening her up and continuing to find new ways to work and play together as a family of 4.

The Last Idyllic Days

 

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Baby Girl, who remains stubbornly in my belly (despite herculean efforts by our Doctors that would make for a great horror film). Jamisen remains blissfully unaware that he soon will have the divided attention of his parents (but plus side, he'll have a friend and a built in play date forever).

  

We remain enamored with our new home, thankful that we moved and feeling very excited about some of the amenities like this retrotastic pink bathtub for Jamisen to play in nightly. He loves bathtime!

  

He's even tried a little bit of immersion programming here:

  

 I've been working on a bath crayon recipe that Jamisen was very hesitant to play with. Every time he used a crayon to write on the walls, he asked to wash his hands in the faucet. He's not a fan of getting dirty. His teacher at Hillcrest told me that he asks for a paintbrush to do fingerpainting with!  

 Another joy in the new house is outdoor fun! We used to go to parks, almost daily (!), to get out and run and at our new house, we just step outside and there's always a new wonder to behold. Jamisen loves learning about everything going on and is very curious about all things water-related especially.  

 I'll admit, he wasn't a fan of my homemade sidewalk chalk. He mostly watched me draw, "Help, help, Mama!" but was thoughtful enough to pose for some photos to make it look like he was totally into it.

  

What he really got excited about was the clean up! Yeah! Water! He washed and washed that sidewalk until it was fully clean and then some.

  

 One of our new routines in the house is reading in Mommy and Daddy's bed before bedtime. Jamisen just snuggles up in his after bath towel, and we read and read and read. He always says "More! More books!" when it's time to go to sleep. I can never deny him more books or more reading time (after all, I'm the girl that would stay up all night reading when I was younger and still stay up way later than is prudent to this day!) so I always grant him one more. He carefully picks the longest one, and just when I get a few pages from the end, deliberately turns the pages almost all the way back to the beginning, ostensibly to pick up a major plot point. He's a clever one, our little Jamisen. 

  

All of the baby equipment is out and ready for Baby Girl's arrival. Stay tuned for her name. We have the full list of possible names here. We'll be choosing from one of them tomorrow!