Easter

Easter was a fun filled 3 days! Thursday, Dalia had an egg hunt at her school, Saturday we went to an egg dyeing and hunt party with some of our friends and their kiddos and on Easter Sunday good ol' Gigi hid eggs all over her little apartment and made both girls sweet little baskets of goodies. Mom and dad got out of doing much around here, but we had a great time. Dalia officially LOVES candy! Yikes.

I will be the first to admit that I've been neglecting this blog because I've been uploading stuff to Facebook. I'm turning over a new leaf. I can upload to blogger from my iPhone, so I'm going to stop neglecting all of you blog followers. I have literally been updating this post for a week!

Let's see how fast I can finish this...(and find time to post more often now so I don't have to make these marathon posts).

Eloise smiles at everyone, all the time. She is just about the most pleasant person I've ever met. She's partial to being held now and it's tricky to get away at sleeping time, but overall, she's just the best.

Speaking of the best - Eloise thinks Dalia is about the greatest thing on the planet.

And Dalia, Baby Dalia. 'Member her? Well, she's a big girl now. She started preschool a few weeks ago. On the first day she saw her cubby and said, "Mama, how did they know my name?" and then walked to the art table. When I said goodbye, she barely looked up to say, "Kay, Bye!"


Dalia planting wheat with the girls across the street. She's now having long outings over there to play without Mom or Dad. We are very lucky to live in this neighborhood.

Dalia and her best girl, Neva.


We see friends and family so often, it's hard to know what photos to post when. Everyone loves to hold Eloise. She doesn't mind either. Thankfully, that usually means a little more time I can spend devoted to Dalia. Truth be told, though, all that attachment style parenting we did is sure turning into a whole lot of independence. She usually only lets me snuggle her at bedtime now. I do miss my little parasite, Baby Dalia sometimes. But love love love watching what an amazing girl she's turning into. Our favorite game right now is spelling. We usually play it in the car. She asks me what certain letters together spell or how to spell a certain word and we enjoy sounding them out together. I'm amazed at her vocabulary and her knack for words. She is reading a little bit more and more each week and can sound out words and write them pretty remarkably for a 3 year old. We are very proud of her.

Eloise can sing! She's changing so much every day, but this video (some of you may remember it from Facebook) was a first glimmer at how she'll be keeping up with and out doing us all someday.


Yes, this is Eloise with an abacus. I thought she'd like the colors, but I guess counting is an option, too.
Dalia playing dress up - okay well, she dresses herself and sometimes it comes out a little cArazy! Sometimes she just wants to be a princess.


This photo was sent to me by my Uncle Rob. It's me and my grandmother and mom. I'm beside myself with glee at how much Eloise looks like me.

Endless....ly grateful

Okay, here's some updates. Sorry it's been so long. It's rare that my hands are free when Dalia is not awake or needing me to interact with her, so updates are few and far between, but I'll assure you that we are enjoying life over here. I don't know what happened, but Eloise created some synergy in my life that has made me endlessly grateful for the constant and continuous activity and neediness of my family. With Dalia, I so often found myself thinking "me, me, me" and there are surely days when I could use a bath or a walk or just five minutes alone, but I can't tell you how much easier it is for me to enjoy this time. I guess with baby number two it's easy to remember that the things that seem like they'll last forever really just dissappear in a matter of days or weeks and Eloise seems to be getting big so quickly that I don't want to miss anything with a bad attitude in the way. That's not to say I don't have my grouchy days, hours and minutes. Dalia and I are increasingly like oil and water. I really can't imagine not being totally intertwined with her emotionally and both of us need each other tremendously, but sheesh! we just go at it sometimes. And she's so articulate that she can really put up her end of the stand off. It's me who ends up at a loss for words sometimes. She's so darn smart and sharp.

And so beautiful. And thoughtful. This morning she woke up before us and played in her room alone for a while. When we woke up there was a gift bag full of books with a balloon attached to it in our bathroom - our surprise gift. Yesterday, I was in the other room doing god knows what and I heard Dalia saying, "oh, no, Eloise don't cry. I'm sorry." Eloise was fussing in her "bed" (which is a co-sleeper next to my bed). I went in and asked (nicely) what happened. Dalia explained that she was shaking a little plastic block over her face and accidentally hit her with it. I asked her how she felt when Eloise cried. She said she felt sad. I could have melted. I told her she'd be more careful next time and that it was okay. She's also showing such incredible self control and playing so well with others these days. It's both heartbreaking to see her have these existential experiences where she has to decide how to be based on how others will feel and so proud.

And Eloise...she is partially responsible for all this conscious living we're doing. When Dalia is melting down, Eloise is laughing and smiling. She seems always happy, always smiling to greet a new friend.

Mama friends

Not to say she doesn't have her moments, but we are just blessed. With both of them, but where Dalia and I are oil and water, Eloise and I are just like two soft pillows (me more literally these days ha ha ha) smooshing up together. She's starting to laugh and talk. I've included a video of her practicing her "voice". So cute. I think it's sort of a protest, but who cares, it's adorable.

A final note - Mark. Oh my goodness, how does anyone do this without help like I get from him? Cooking, cleaning, holding crying babies, changing diapers, helping kids in the night...and working so we can do all this. And being supportive and thoughtful all the time. I'm so utterly thankful for him. Really just shake my head at how I got so lucky. I'm so glad my girls have such support and love from their daddy.

Okay, this is way too long of a blog update, but now you know.

pictures of the day

They just seem to get bigger right before my eyes and do so many things that I don't want to miss or forget. Today we just had an ordinary day as a family on the heels of Mark's first week away for work.

winter sunshine

It's pretty difficult updating the blog these days. Seems like there's rarely a moment I have two hands free. But so much wonder and good stuff is going on in this house. Seems like we are all settling in to the new dynamic. Dalia has stopped having such huge tantrums and has begun being a very "cooperative" big little girl. We instituted a "cooperative gummi bear" reward system a few weeks ago and have had the most peaceful bedtimes and helpful outings to the store. Dalia hasn't been much for the reward system until now. It's pretty amazing, though I think it's a lot like bribery.

Dalia and Eloise are starting to form a great bond. I'm working hard on giving Dalia the freedom to touch and hold Eloise without so much interjection on how, mostly because I'm noticing that Eloise smiles and gets so excited when she gets big sister attention that is unbridled. Dalia has some big emotions and expresses them in big ways - one in particularly is squeezing really hard when she hugs. It actually hurts me when she does it, so we have to be careful to help her understand that she can't squeeze her like she wants. Eloise has shed a few tears from being touched too rough, but mostly she just can't get enough of Dalia's attention.

As you can see, Eloise has opened her eyes, and now that she's awake we can see that she is such a happy, pleasant little being. One of her favorite pastimes is flirting with a cellophane balloon that Dalia has graciously shared with her. She can't get enough of looking at it.


Mark and I get a little time with Eloise alone at night after Dalia's gone to bed. It's a sweet and special time.




We got to share a couple of days with Scott, Robin and Connor this past weekend. Dalia cried and cried when they left. It's always a joy to see our family loved so much.



Valentine's Day came first. She loved loved celebrating with homemade cards and chocolate. This photo of her with Pops was captured while making Valentine's Day popcorn.

We also got some snow! Dalia was beside herself.

But before that, she got to help Daddy clear out the garden beds. She shoveled and spread dirt for an hour. I was inside with Eloise and was sure that they'd left the yard for a walk or something because it was so quiet out there. I know Mark is happy to have a garden helper.
And finally, I'll say it out loud, Eloise sleeps! I'm getting 5-7 hour stretches of sleep these days, which I haven't had in over three years. Being well rested has helped me to feel like this Mom thing is pretty much the best job ever. I'm so overwhelmingly thankful we were brave enough to have a second child. She completes us all in such a wonderful way.

Dalia's girls

Dalia's got a pair of friends who live around the corner from us. These sisters have been our friends since Dalia was just a few weeks old. Emma is three months younger and Nora is about a year and a half older and this threesome has grown up together. Their mom, Nancy (who I really don't know how I would have lived through the last three years without) and I can hardly believe these girls are now running around for blocks and blocks together with their baby strollers and bikes, when they seemed just yesterday to be crawling around in circles in our tiny little houses, ramming into each other and falling down. Now they play imagination games like exploring and play downstairs without any supervision (how lucky!). Anyway, we were out on one of our walks the other day and Nancy captured this moment together. It's so fun to think of these girls being friends forever. Thanks to FB, I've got a couple of these BFF's in my life again. Oh, and by the way, Eloise was happily sleeping in a sling, such a pleasant soul.

smiles

Eloise is 10 weeks old. She weighs 10 pounds, 6 ounces as of last week, so pushing 11 pounds now. She sleeps well for a newborn, for this I am endlessly grateful. I honestly didn't believe that they really made babies that you could put down drowsy or swaddle or any of those things people recommend. Anyway, I'm still tired all the time, but it took 18 months for me to get sleep like I'm getting when Dalia was a baby. So, thank goodness for small miracles. And she is. Eloise is a dream. She's starting to smile now. It's such a window into her personality. So sweet. When she does wake in the middle of the night and is fussing around, when I turn on the little light we use to change her and she sees me, she stops fussing and gets the biggest smile. It melts my heart and continues to make it all worthwhile. She loves it when her sister sticks her big nose in her face (which is all the time!) and smiles so big at her antics and when she zurburts her tummy.

Speaking of Dalia - she is suddenly more grown up somehow. So helpful and kind, thoughtful and such a great companion for Mama. We are having a wonderful time just hanging around. We've been able to go outside more and next week she'll start a couple of classes at the community center. Gigi will help me by taking her and she will get to experience her little granddaughter do big things. What a treat and treasure to share this time with my Mom. On Super Bowl Sunday she was holding both girls and I couldn't resist going over and sitting on her lap, too.

Anyway, we're all looking forward to spring, but as we'd hoped, Eloise is our little bit of sunshine.