She really does...

...love hugs. And this has inspired our new family motto:

HUGS NOT DRUGS.

Chillin' With Dad

So far Amelia is a pretty chill little girl. I prayed really hard for a fat lazy baby after I had Maddox (who was and still is the most high energy skinny kid ever). So far I'm getting what I wanted. Lia really does just like to sit and look around, snuggle, and relax. She's not a fussy baby (unless she's eating -- that's a whole other post) and LOVES the stroller. She even just likes to hang out with us in our bed, something Max still doesn't like to do (in fact, as these pictures were being taken Max was running around and around the bed from one side to the other).



She's obsessed with her hands right now. Always in her mouth! Little cutie!

3 Month Old Chub

Tyler and I are always joking that we're not used to having a fat bald baby. And it's true! Max was born with a serious amount of hair and was never fat (although his cheeks made him look like he was). Lia is the total opposite. She's got these great little leg rolls and fat cheeks and chubby little tummy that poofs out over the top of her pants. It's adorable! We love having a rolly poly little chubbers.



She hasn't been officially weighed for her 4 month check up, but last time we checked (at 3 months) she was almost 14 pounds. Max weighed 15 pounds at 6 months, so now you can see why we're shocked. I'm sure it's from all that yummy rice cereal we mix into her bottle (doctor's orders). But still, she's a cute little thing. Drooly and slobbering and chubby and lovey -- just how I like it!! Life is pretty good for a chub.

Fairy Party

Our sweetie little neighbor turned 2 and had the most amazing Fairy Party ever!! Max had a blast, especially since all his best friends were there and he got to wear fairy wings! He even got a tattoo that has started the serious obsession with tattoos Max now has. Even Lia joined in the fun!




(Yup, totally stole these off your blog Mariah!)

Zoos and Cousins

A few weekends ago (okay, maybe like a month ago now) Tyler's parents came down to visit (and to go to Amelia's blessing) and we met Tyler's cousin Hailey and her husband Brandon and son Connor who is only a few days older than Max. We ate LOTS of pupusas and saw lots of cool animals. Connor and Max were so cute together! It's fun that Hailey, Brandon and Connor live so close to us now! (We totally need to get together again, soon!)






Sharing a ride! (This is a funny picture because they were both really happy the whole day, but for some reason Max looks totally ticked here!)

We also met up with Tyler's grandpa and Linda at PF Chang's. PF Chang's and cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory have become our routine here now when Tyler's family visits. No complaints from me!!



And here are a few more pictures of Lia's blessing day. Such a nice blessing!




Papa feeding Lia her bottle.


Grammie and Lia

A Grammie Visit

This actually happened a while ago but my pictures from it were lost and I just got them back so I'm posting it now. Okay? Good. We're all on the same page now.





Tyler's mom came to visit right after my mom left after Amelia was born. We were sooo thankful for her visit because she let us get some sleep and got up with Lia at night! It was awesome. Amelia even graced her a couple times with her massive spit-ups (that, thank goodness, don't happen anymore).





Max had a ton of fun with Grammie at the Scripps Aquarium (and I got a much needed break from everyone to run some errands). We had Max open his Christmas presents from them because we didn't think we were going to see them at Christmas. We had a great time with her here. Thanks Grammie for all your help!!

The Greatest Big Brother

I really have to take a moment to brag about how amazing Max is with Lia. I was so worried that he was going to be uber jealous and hard to deal with when it came to her. But he is just the opposite. He is so kind to her, loving, worried about her all the time. The moment he hears her cry he lets me know and runs over and gives her a paci or a blanket or a toy he thinks might make her happy. Sometimes he even shares his own beloved wrappie with her if she's really sad. He hugs her and holds her and is gentle with her. He's protective and proud of her, too. He tells everyone that he "has a baby sister and she's sooo cute!"

Tonight was one of the cutest things ever. I was giving Lia her bath before I put her to bed and Max came in and started playing with her. She took one look at him and just cracked up! I'd never heard her laugh like this before. It made me melt. This video is the end part of it. But she was laughing so hard.





These two are going to be great friends, I can feel it. I see their connection and their bond already forming and it's amazing. Having two kids is hard, really hard. But watching them grow and learn together and grow close with each other makes it worth it. We have great kids!! And Amelia is one lucky girl to have a brother like Max.

I love this little girl!

Okay, I happen to think she is one of the cutest babies alive. Max was pretty dang cute (still is). And Lia is just over the top. I think both my kids are ridiculously cute!! Here are some recent pictures of Lia.




Wee little birdie shoes!!


None of these are proofed, some are blurry, but all are ridiculously cute!!




Blowing bubbles.


Little smirk!


Are you sick of this little face yet? No?

Good.



And this is how she naps.


And this is how they hang out and watch TV together.

I want a hawk mama!

I finally took Max to get a real haircut from a real hair stylist. His last one like that was from Mariah when he was like 5 months old. After that I just shaved his head at home myself. And he would throw a huge tantrum every time because he hated it. So instead of bringing on the tears, I brought on the treats, lollipops and videos. We went to this really cute place in PB. They had a rocket chair for him to sit in, a lollipop to suck on and "The Backyardigans" on the TV. He was very much pacified. When the stylist asked me what I wanted for his hair Max screamed out "I WANT A HAWK MAMA!!" The lady turned to me and was like, is that what you want? I told her to go for it. If it's awful, it's only hair and we can just shave it off at home.

So a hawk he got.



And when his haircut was done, he got down off the chair and said, "NOW I'M READY TO ROCK MOM!!"



So yeah, our little rocker. It doesn't help that we just got Rock Band for PS2 and he thinks he's a real rockstar now. Should I be getting ready to be a stage mom? I promise I won't be the creepy kind.

A Benihana Valentine

Tyler and I got to go out! Together! Just the TWO of us! Thanks to my sister Danielle and her awesome friend Melissa for watching the kiddos. We went to Benihana, one of my favorite places. I got double fried rice. That fried rice is freaking amazing! I ate some for breakfast the next day. Our chef guy was kinda lame. He didn't do ANY tricks. He didn't even do the onion volcano! Oh well, the food was still great!! Thanks honey for a great date night!!

PLETHERA...

of posts... scroll down. WAY DOWN. more coming soon. i promise.

Videos for the grandparents...

Here are a couple videos I managed to save of the kids. The first is Max showing how he "helps" with Lia. I think if Lia was the judge she might think differently. The second is Lia in the bath. She's started splashing and flailing around a lot. It's cute! This isn't the best video, but I'll get another one soon.

He's cute.

And we know it.



We love him!

Smiley!

Lia is pretty smiley. And she reminds me so much of Max when she does it, too. She's also starting to giggle just a little bit! Max didn't start laughing until he was pretty old, maybe 9 months! He smiled a LOT but no laughs.







And I just liked this picture of Tyler and Lia.

Baby in Black and White

Here are some photos I did of Lia in black and white. She's so cute!



Here is a link to the rest of the album on flickr. Just click on it to see them!

LIA IN BLACK AND WHITE

Lia In Pictures

Since most of my pictures of her "happenings" have been lost, I'll just give you the updates from her first three months of life in one post, with some random pictures. Better than nothing, right?



So for her one month appointment she was quite the chubbers. A good 9 or 10 pounds I think (I'm so terrible I can't remember). She also started to smile. She's now a super smiley baby!



Lia wakes up happy. She is the happiest baby I have ever seen when she wakes up. She could be screaming to be gotten out of her bed and the minute she sees my face there's a huge smile on it. It's so rewarding, seriously. Especially because her big brother still gets all cranked out whenever he wakes up from anything.



At her two month appointment Lia got a lot of shots. It was sad. But she was 11 1/2 pounds! And almost 22 inches long. She's gaining weight like crazy. She's got these awesome leg rolls. We took her to get weighed recently and she's almost 13 pounds now. (Max wasn't even 12 pounds until a good week or two into his 3 month). She'll be 3 months on the 20th.



She eats A LOT of food at each feeding. We give her 5-6 ounces of formula thickened with rice cereal. She'll go about 5-6 hours between feedings. She had one night where she slept right through (like 7-6) all by herself, but hasn't done it since. I think it's growth spurt time, you know, when things get all wonky and annoying. We have to thicken her cereal because she has really bad acid reflux. She's also on prescription Prilosec and the combination works wonders. No more projectile spit ups EVERYWHERE! No more fussy feedings (well, she can get fussy, but not because of the reflux). No more changing of the clothes, mine and hers, 5 times a day. It's much much better.



At night we do the same routine we did with Max. Seems to work okay. She gets in the bath about 6pm. Loves the bath!! Gets out, gets dressed, has a bottle. Her feeding schedule isn't as precise as Max's was. Max was every two hours ON.THE.DOT. Hers is a little more flexible so sometimes at night she won't take a bottle before bed and wakes up an hour or two later to eat. She goes 5-7 hours before she eats again (and Tyler being the wonderful father that he is, seriously, gets up to feed her. He's amazing. Like seriously amazing. He loves his daughter so much it's incredible. And he loves his wife, too). Goes right back to sleep and gets up again around 6-8 (depending on when she's eaten). So it's not a bad schedule.



She loves her paci at night. (So does Max, still -- I know, I know...) Her naps are mostly good. She'll take a good one in the morning, falling asleep in the car. I have to go out in the mornings to get Max out of the house so unfortunately for her she sleeps in the car. But she sleeps long and well and doesn't wake up when we run 50 different errands! She usually wakes up about lunch time to eat, stays awake for a few hours, and then falls asleep in her little papasan either in the living room or our bedroom. Some days are rougher than others and I'm still trying to get used to not having that good long break in the afternoon (Max still naps for 2-3 hours in the afternoon -- sanity saver!!)



Anyway, Lia is a wonderful baby. Smiley and happy and mellow. She likes to cuddle. She likes to stare at your face. I have to get her pooping on video because it is hilarious. She's just starting to make little cooing noises and little giggles. It's wonderfully wonderful. She's growing like crazy! For shirts she can fit into a lot of 6-12 month sizes. And for pants it's no less than 3-6 months. We're not use to such a long chubby baby (Max has always been teeny tiny!) and we love it!! Oh, she hates tummy time, worse than Max did. She still doesn't have much hair and is growing quite the bald spot on the back of her head. Poor thing. I dress her in lots of pink so everyone knows she's a girl. She still has amazing blue eyes like Max and Tyler. Oh, and she loves her bouncy seat gym thingy.



Anyway, that's Lia so far. If I think of anything else I add to it. I don't want to forget these precious early moments with her. They go by so fast with the second one! I can't believe she's going to be three months old already. I remember waiting for Max to be three months old and thinking he would never get there. We love her!!

Newborn Shoot

Here are the pictures of baby Lia from the photo shoot that Mariah did. AMAZING photos!!





My favorite!






Second favorite!


Okay, maybe this is my favorite!


What the heck, they are all my favorites!