"I want do my byself"

Someone's on a bit of an independent streak...

She wants to do everything "my byself."

And she frequently expresses this desire in a lovely high pitched squeal. 

But, hey, as long as doing things "my byself" includes taking out the garbage...I'm ok with it.

Lullabies

Apparently, my lullabies aren't half bad. 

Finally!

Since Calder and Tessa were both sick when Alyse first came home, we didn't allow them to hold her right away.  This past weekend, they finally got their chance!  Tessa got to go first...and she was beyond excited. She giggled and squealed the whole time! 

 

She now asks to hold her constantly!  And she definitely has to be monitored very closely near the baby.  She is all about touching Alyse all over (not so gently) and putting her face about a half inch from Alyse's.  It's all out of love, but it makes Mommy and Daddy a little nervous!

Here's the live action shot: 


Big Sister from courtney on Vimeo.


Check out this proud brother!  He is sooooo sweet and gentle with Alyse.  He touches her very softly and is really good about following our instructions on which parts are ok to touch (feet and top of head) and which are not (hands and face).  

He was beaming the entire time that he held her, and I think he was even a little nervous about doing it "right".

Here's Calder on video.  It's hard to tell on the video, but he wanted to kiss her so bad, but didn't know if he should/could.  So, he was "kissing" the air in her direction.  Cute!

Big Brother from courtney on Vimeo.

Photo Shoot

I had so much fun doing a little photo shoot with Alyse for her birth announcement.  Here are some of my favorites:

 

And the winning photo...

Hello, Spring

Erin Go Bragh!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from our lucky charms!

six weeks

I dare you not to smile at this pic of our bright-eyed, 6-week old cutie pie...  She was snuggling the stuffed kitty that her brother gave her to hold. 

Then she snuggled with her proud big brother...

Big sister got in on the snuggling (and kissing) too!  

She's very tolerant of all that lovin'

 In other news, Alyse has officially outgrown her preemie outfits and they now have a new life as baby doll clothes!  At about 7lbs, she's solidly in newborn size now.  Since she had the same outfit in preemie and newborn sizes, I decided to have a little photo fun!

Big Sister

So far, Tessa is loving her role as big sister.  She seemed slightly jealous on Alyse's first day home, but she doesn't seem so anymore.  She constantly wants to give Alyse kisses on her head and feet, and she likes to know where she is at all times.  She's always pointing out Alyse's possessions, like her blankets and jammies, and she gets especially excited over her bed and paci. 

She likes to get a little too close for my comfort level...she gets her face right up in front of Alyse's and says "Hiiiiiiii, Baby Alyse!" But she's also a good little helper.  She helps rock her baby sister in the swing, and loves to be in charge of getting diapers for us. 

Tessa is off to a great start as big sister!

Happiness

One Month Old

A day after arriving home, Alyse turned 1 month old!  At her pediatrician's appointment on Monday, she weighed in at 6 lbs 4 oz. - an impressive 5 oz. gain from her discharge weight on Saturday!  She has another weigh-in tomorrow, so let's hope she's keeping up the good work.

Here's what she's been up to during her first week at home...

Getting to know her big sister.

Making new friends.

Tummy Time

Modeling her Valentine outfits that she never got the chance to wear in the hospital.  Because of all the wires that she was connected to in the NICU, she could really only wear button-down sleepers.

More modeling.

Striking a pose.

More tummy time.

First bath at home!

She found it quite relaxing...

Clean, happy girl.

Catching some zzzzz's after all of that hard work!

Playtime with my big girl

It's amazing how having a baby can make your other kids seem so much older than they did before.  Tessa just seemed like such a big girl as we played with her dollhouse the other day....

She's recently discovered pockets...and absolutely loves putting her hands in them. 

In other big girl news, Tessa pooped on the potty for the first time tonight!  She's been very interested in sitting on the potty for a while, but doesn't usually produce anything.  Just recently, she started occasionally peeing on the potty, but I was totally blown away tonight when she yelled "I did it!! I poop on the potty!" from the bathroom, and sure enough, she had.  So proud of my big girl!