The two cutie pies

I couldnt stop laughing at her position and her little belly hanging out in this shot :)

Asleep in the laundry basket ;)

My almost 3 year old Pirate! Ar Matey!

Playing Kiddos

Brayden showing Paytin how to use the playmat for the first time :)

Love how he is looking at her in this shot!

Cute siblings!

Look how crazy blue her eyes look in this shot!

Pegging Paytin

• She loves to sleep on us. In fact, at night, she wont even attempt to sleep in her bassinet or crib. It's Mommy or Daddy or no sleep at all. If anyone asks if Paytin is "difficult" I can quickly say no, with this minor exception. Daddy and I don't mind it, but it does make for a very light night of sleep!
• Her umbilical cord stump fell off on Saturday, it's healing up perfectly, another difference from Brayden since his had to be carterized (sp?) a few times before it came off and he has some scarring on his belly button because of that.
• She is JUST about out of preemie diapers now, yahoo! I have a feeling she will be in Newborns for quite awhile though. Looking forward to finding out her weight at her doctor's appt next Monday.
• At her doctor appt last Friday, she weighed in at 5 lbs, 13.5 ounces and was 18.5 inches long (funny that both our kids "shrank" after birth too since they said Brayden was 0.5 inches shorter at his first dr. appt too!
• She passed her third hearing test with no problems on Friday too :) I was so happy to hear that! She had passed her left ear test in the hospital but we think she still had too much gunk in her right ear before we were discharged!
• She has a yucky clogged tear duct right now which thankfully doesnt seem to be bothering her, it's just yucky! We're doing massages on it, warm compresses, and, thanks to weird advice that seems to be really helping, putting a few drops of breastmilk in it. It seems to really help in getting the goop out and keeping it out for a little bit at a time.
• She is feeding like a champ and likes to eat in short spurts, but pretty frequently. Definetely no set schedule yet, she just eats when she wants.  She does usually go at least one 4 hour stretch in a day, but often eats every hour and forty five minutes.
• She no doubt has my fingers, toes, and legs. She's a long and lanky little girl. But besides those features, she very much looks like Brayden. I am starting to see differences in them, but right after birth, she looked SO much like him!
• Her "freckles" from birth are all gone now. Makes me so sad!  I knew they were temporary, but she had all these tiny little burst capillaries from birth and they just looked like little red freckles :). Glad I got some pictures of them before they went away!
• She loves to have her arms up by her face like she did in-utero. It's so cute to see her long legs all sprawled out and her little tiny hands all tucked by her face.
• She has a VERY strong neck. Both Mike and I are amazed at how she can lift her head up (when on her tummy) and turn her head so shes facing the other way. I can't believe it!

Ok, that's it for now, I have a little boy with a water gun waiting to be attended too :)

I survived...

my first outing with Brayden and Paytin on my own today. It's so funny how a very simple and easy going baby, still seems to make it so much harder to get out the door and get things done! I still can't put my finger on exactly what it is, because she involves the least work out of everyone most of the time, but there is something about the extra bag, extra 6 lbs of weight in an extra carseat, that just takes longer! But we finally got out of the house, ran and dropped some stuff off at the local thrift store, went to the post office (I realized now that I have two kids how much I dislike having to have a PO Box, especially when you lug them both out of the car to have two pieces of mail that could have waiting a day or two to pick up!) and the grocery store. I should have looked at the clock and realized it was nearing naptime, on a hot day, that Brayden woke up early on, but still we trucked on to get a few essentials (and why, now that I have another kid do I find myself realizing things I should have gotten at the store, the moment I get HOME from going to the store....I just don't know!) About half way through, Brayden was misbehaving, in the nice little car grocery cart that I got (where he sits down in the very front in a little car-like thing attached to the cart)and standing up, feet out the doors, trying to crawl through the windshield, whining about wanting a cookie (the bakery gives the kid a free one while Mom's shop). After several warnings, I had to completely pull over the huge cart in the milk aisle, crouch down and deal with him. It was NOT my best attempt at discipline (for some reason I have a hard time disciplining in public) but I was determined to not let him get away with how he was acting just because we were in public. So I crouched down, and talked to Brayden about sitting down, listening to Mommy, and waiting (my least favorite word with Brayden, he just doesnt seem to get the concept at all.) and was greeted with more whining, so I put the seat belt on him and turned and grabbed some milk and other items I needed (Brayden freaked out because he didnt want to be buckled in which was my form of "time out" in the situation we were in) and then I came back, talked to him, unbuckled him, and we went on our way. I saw an older lady looking at me the whole time, but just tried to ignore it. Then we were at the checkout line and the same lady came walking up to me and told me what a great job I had done disciplining him and how refreshing it was to see how I handled the situation. I was hot, sweaty, tired from the battle, ready to get home and nap, and those words couldn't have been sweeter to hear. I thanked the lady and she walked off, and it's one of those moments she will probably forget, but that I will always remember. Kindness with words goes a long way, and today was a huge example of that to me :)

A last try before journaling...

I was talking with my mom in the car yesterday, about how much I really do love blogging. I started it shortly after Mike and I got married, and it's been my way to journal, track memories, and keep my family and friends that are far away, in touch with our lives. However, technology doesn't always make things easy and I've had to blog hop several times in the last year because of problems with blogger, etc. Our nice long chat made me realize I really miss blogging and the easy way it allowed me to "track" our lives in time, since I dont have or make time to sit down and actually write in a journal. This is the journal of our lives, of our ups and downs, memories in the making, growing families, milestone moments of our kids, and our everyday nitty gritty. I love that. Whether I had twenty people following our blog, or whether no one checked it and I just did it to journal, I decided its a hobby I'm not willing to give up but one that I want to tackle again with just my original reasoning, a time capsule of our lives. So here's to Mike, to Brayden, to Paytin, and to this crazy beautiful life we live thanks to our awesome God!