Fun in the rain!

We had a couple of afternoons with a lot of rain earlier this week, so of course, there was some puddle jumping and playing in the rain going on!

There were a few rumbles of thunder in the distance, so Bo kept his ears covered.

Mae wasn't very amused by the rain.

I have no idea what they were doing in this one, but it has kept me laughing!

You'll just have to imagine the sound here....

Cookin'

Every now and then, Bo will spend a lot of time in the play kitchen and do some serious cookin'!

I wonder if the guys cooking at restaurants are in their undies and have tattoos??

Catching up

We're settling into a little routine around here....finally!

Bo has asked for a bike for his birthday. I guess he's over the pink tricycle. ha!

Indoor picnic:

And Mae is just taking it all in and trying to keep up!

Blueberry Pictures 2013

We started a fun tradition back in 2009, taking a picture of the kids on a picnic blanket with a big basket of Sambo's blueberries. We didn't know at the time how much fun it would be to look at the pictures over the years and see how the kids have grown and changed.

Last year, I had to do some heavy duty Photoshopping to get a picture of all the kids looking. This year, the kids did GREAT!! All I had to do was crop it a bit and brighten it up!

Gigi (5 yrs), Tripp (2 yrs), Arabelle (4 yrs), Mae (1 mo.), Bo (2 yrs), Rhianna (6 yrs)

It was HOT and the gnats were so bad. Most of the pictures have at least one kid swatting the gnats.

Tripp looks a little unhappy here. Someone told him to stop eating blueberries for the picture. ;)

Now he's happy!

5 years of blueberry pictures!

I wonder how hard it will be to get them to come home from college for the picture?? :)

Mae is 1 month old!

It's amazing how fast and slow a month can go by! It's already hard to imagine what it was like before Mae was a part of our family.

For the first couple of weeks, Bo seemed to forget about her, but now he is always telling me "Don't forget Mae" when we are heading out the door. Arabelle, of course, still always wants to hold her.

• Mae is nursing pretty much every 3 hours during the day, except for the evenings, when I'll nurse her every 2 hours. She's fussier in the evenings and it settles her, plus I try to tank her up for the night. The milk comes out a bit too fast for her still, so she ends up gulping a lot of air in and is a pretty gassy baby. I am always burping her or bicycling her legs to help ease her tummy pain. She can make some pretty loud noises. ;) We give her gas drops and Gripe Water often to help. She gets a belly full in about 10-15 minutes, with a burp break in there. 
• She's sleeping between 3.5-5 hour stretches at night. Usually the longer stretch first, then a bit of a shorter one (3.5-4 hours). She's feeding 2x during the night right now. She usually goes to sleep around 9:00, sometimes earlier and sometimes later and starts her day at 7:30. 
• We are following the eat, play, sleep routine. Naps are a bit all over the place. Her awake time is around 40-60 minutes and she falls asleep quickly, but 5-10 minutes later, her eyes pop open like she's taken a 2 hour nap. I spend a lot of time trying to get her naps extended. She sleeps swaddled and would sleep really well if I'd hold her the whole time. ;) She's still sleeping in our room for now.
• She's in a size 1 diaper and 3 mo. clothes. I bet she's around 11-11.5 pounds now. She's chubbing up!
• This week, she has started focusing on things more, like her toys on the play mat, the ceiling fan, and people's faces. She definitely still has her startle reflex. Bo tends to test that out daily. ;)
• She doesn't mind a few minutes of tummy time, but gets tired of it pretty quickly. When she's over it, she pushes up really high and screams. Good practice on her arm strength! 
• She's given me a few smiles the last couple of days, which I love, especially at 2am. :)

Sunday afternoon, I laid Mae on the pillow to go get her swaddle blanket for her nap. She dozed off a few minutes with Daddy. :)

Pushing up strong!

Mae is definitely in her first "Wonder Week".

New sensations bombard your baby inside and out, and he is usually bewildered by them. Some of these new things have to do with the development of his internal organs and his metabolism. Others are a result of his increased alertness—his senses are more sensitive than they were immediately after birth. So it is not so much the sensations themselves that are changing, but rather the baby’s perceptions of them.

We love the Miracle Blanket.

Baby toes!

I plan to take her picture each month in this chair with her quilt Aunt Kay made for her (Isn't it beautiful!?). I love looking back at Arabelle and Bo's monthly pictures and I know I'll enjoy it with Mae too. 

Mae has grown and changed so much in one short month! I think we're all enjoying her cuddles and looking forward to watching her grow!

Happy 1 month Mae!

Mae is one month old!

A detailed update with lots of pictures will be up in a few days. Until then, here's the latest picture of our growing girl!

Snake and Slip-n-Slide

Don't worry, it's just a snake on a race car:

Last Thursday, Leigh Leigh came over to stay inside with Mae while I took Arabelle and Bo out to play on the slip-n-slide. I am WAY too out of shape to be slip-n-sliding....it wore me out and I came away with some bruises, but it sure was fun. :)