Cecilia's 1st trip - West Palm Beach

We had a great family trip to Florida with the 4 of us. Grandma Jan and Grandpa Steve gave us their timeshare points to stay in a wonderful 2-bedroom unit in West Palm Beach, Florida.

We had a great 1st flight with Cecilia and our pro flyer, Maeve. The only meltdowns we had from Maeve was when Mom went to the bathroom and was stuck in the back of the plane by the beverage cart. She was tired so we'll let her have that one. She also wasn't happy when she went with Dad to get the rental car and they were leaving and I wasn't in the car yet.

Once we got to the hotel, we let Maeve go to the swimming pool right away. Pizza by the pool was also fun and then Cecilia slept for 6 hours the first night and Maeve slept all night in her own room and bed with toddler rails. Our girls like to travel!

Overall the trip was a lot of fun. The hardest time was dinner time but we made it through with the iPad and laying Cecilia down in the booth to look around. She was probably tired of the carseat as most naps were spent in there.

Highlights:

• Maeve liked the pool more than the beach (bummer for Mom right now but hopefully that will change with time!) but she did enjoy collecting seashells and looking at the sea turtle nests.


• Maeve loved using her floaties and floating 'all by herself' in the pool


• Mom enjoyed walking on the beach with Cecilia during Maeve's nap time


• Maeve was such a great big sister. She wanted to hold Cecilia and at times it actually seemed to calm her down.


• Dad won bingo twice and we enjoyed ice cream sundaes as the prizes


• Maeve loved playing with the big girls in the pool while Cecilia napped on the pool chair. She said things like 'want to jump with Maeve' and would hold their hands and jump in together.

The weather forecast said it was going to rain everyday because of Tropical Storm Colin but luckily we missed it all. The only time it rained was during dinners or when we were in the pool on Tuesday. Maeve could've cared less so we stayed in the pool.
Our favorite restaurant was the last night. Maeve ate all her shrimp (she preferred that over burgers and tacos that she had the other nights) and drank half her pineapple juice. She loved it and we loved our Mahi Mahi, Grouper, mussels and clam chowder.

On the last day, we were the first ones in the pool and on the beach. It was hard to get everything ready to go with 2 kids and then 20 minutes into the car ride Cecilia wants to eat. Maeve had fallen asleep but woke up when we stopped and never slept anymore. We pulled over to feed and it poured rain so we had to maneuver in the car to put Cecilia back in car seat. We finally get to the airport and it's funny how your kids know you so much - I was frustrated because I bought yogurt for Maeve that was expired and Maeve knew it and asked Dad why I was frustrated! Then it starts pouring as we are taking off and we get delayed for 1 extra hour on the runway. But they did great on the flight. And that's what "vacation" or time away is like with an infant and a toddler! It was fun seeing Maeve's personality and having fun with both girls!

Cecilia's 2 Month stats

Here are the stats from our 2-month check up today.

Height: 23.6" (94%)

Weight: 10lbs 8oz (33%)

Head Size: 14.9" (47%)

She didn't enjoy the shots but she enjoyed snuggling for the rest of the day! Let's hope she has a good night of sleep.

2 Months Old

Cecilia is 2 months old and I caught her with a smile for the picture! The blanket in the picture was handmade by Grandma Millie!

For her 2 month birthday, we applied for her passport this week and after Mom attempted to take some pictures we decided it was best to let the Post Office do it. They got a great picture of her but it was too washed out so we went with the 2nd best option which has her hand in the picture - let's hope it gets approved! We're so excited for our upcoming trips overseas (Ireland and Turks and Caicos next Spring) and Florida in 2 sleeps (that's what we are telling Maeve and she is so excited to go!!)

Memorial Day Weekend 2016

We started off with great news this weekend that our newest niece, Payton Ashley, was born to Scott and Morgan. We were so excited to meet her when she was a few hours old when we stopped by the hospital on our way up to the cabin.

Cecilia enjoyed her first trip to the cabin. She went on her first boat ride and didn't fuss at all in her lifejacket and slept most of the ride. She also loved the bassinet with a mobile on it and was watching that intently.

Maeve also loved the cabin. She enjoyed outdoor games like lawn bowling and indoor toys like painting. She also went fishing with Grandma Jan, played in the 63 degree water and helped with outdoor chores with Grandpa Steve. She also loved the boat rides and her new room at the lake.

Memorial Day always kicks off the summer in Minnesota so we loved our time at the lake and look forward to more weekends up there.

Cecilia's first smile

Cecilia has had a great week. She's 7 weeks old and has melted our hearts with her first smiles and slept through the night (only once but we'll take it!). She's mostly waking up once a night and is a mild-tempered baby during the day. She rolled over once as well from her front to her back but that was probably a fluke since I can't get her to do it again. She is fussy for dad when he gets home from work but that's normal for her age. She also went to her first Twins baseball game and slept for most of it (as did the rest of the fans since the Twins aren't good at all this year!).

Favorite picture - throwback

I had to re-create one of my favorite photos that we took of Maeve in the first month. Here's a comparison of the two. I think Cecilia resembles her mom while Maeve resembles her dad! Can you tell who is who??

Happy 1 Month to Cecilia

Cecilia is 1 month old today!

We are enjoying life with 2 girls. Grandma Brigid, Aunt Anne, and Grandpa Ed just left yesterday. We enjoyed the time that we spent with them including celebrating Aunt Anne's birthday with a delicious cookie cake and having a shrimp boil with all of the grandparents. Cecilia is slowly figuring out this whole sleeping at night routine. We've had a few good nights with 3 hour stretches so we'll call that a success. She is not a fussy baby and mostly needs to be woken up to eat during the day. As with all babies, she has a fussy time at night but is easy to soothe if you hold her and walk around with her.

We enjoyed time with Grandma Brigid since Cecilia arrived. We were able to cook great dinners and desserts, finish the announcements and send them out and work with Cecilia to take a bottle. Grandpa Ed did puzzles with Maeve and went shopping with all of us so we could get out of the house.  We also loved having Aunt Anne here to take some pictures. We took Cecilia's 1-month picture with a new personalized blanket from Great Aunt Cathy and Uncle Michael Garvey and pictures of Maeve with her favorite lovey, her cat. She posed so well for Aunt Anne! Maeve is wearing a blue dress that her Great Grandma, Joyce Edmonds, made for me when I was a girl. Cecilia is wearing a new outfit from Great Aunt Debbie Edmonds. You'll probably see a lot more pictures in these cute outfits. We also spent time with the Kirchner family for several family birthdays including Grandpa Steve, Aunt Morgan, Great Aunt Anne and Great Uncle Andrew Wittenborg. The end of April/beginning of May is a busy time for family birthdays. Aunt Marcia also celebrates a birthday this week so Maeve is making a lot of 'Happy Birthday' videos and singing Happy Birthday to whomever will listen!

Today it was back to reality - it's just the 4 of us - so we've figured out multi-tasking with Cecilia in the wrap and 1-to-1 parenting with a toddler and an infant.