Carrick Grandkids

It was great to have Ali and Brian in town with Liam, Tim, and Ty. I was sad that we get sick and weren't able to spend much time with them but at least we got a few pictures of all of the grandkids together. (Even if we did have to bribe Liam with a cookie.) Good luck in Colorado guys!

Lesson Learned

Katarina tried to pour her own milk today. After a half hour of cleaning and a change of clothes, I hope she learned that she isn't quiet big enough yet.

February

Wait, the month is almost over? When did it start? This month has been a bit of a blur for me as I have struggled to get back on my feet, learn how to have two children, and then learn how to accomplish anything else as I care for two children. I feel like I am finally able to do the things that need to get done and not rely on Jayme so much. He has been very busy taking care of all of us and everything else the last month and a half. I am so grateful that I can start carrying some of that load.

My favorite thing about being a mother of two is just watching the interaction of my two little girls. Katarina is such a great big sister. She is kind and thoughtful, patient and helpful. She is very gentle. She is also pretty good at playing on her own. Her one shortcoming is that of situational awareness. When she is not directly interacting with Elyssa she is not aware that her feet might be touching her, or that Elyssa might be affected by some of the things that she does, but I don't think it is very fair to expect that of any two year old. I just have to remind her not to be so close to her sister if she is not playing with her. She even gets excited about Elyssa's small victories, such as lifting up her head, though I am careful to let Katarina know that she is also very good at lifting up her head.

One of the sweetest moments that we have had was when Katarina was holding Baby Elyssa and singing her, "I am a Child of God". It was a very precious moment for me. Every time that Katarina holds Baby Elyssa she asks me to take pictures. I love being able to do that. She has also started asking me to take video but then will sit for the video and pose like for a camera. I try to tell her that she should do something for the camera but she just sits there and smiles. It is pretty cute.

We had a lot of fun on Thursday. We got about four inches of snow that actually stuck. Jayme called his dad to let him know that he wasn't going out to work and then he made waffles for us. Elyssa slept while Jayme and Katarina made a Frosty the Snowman and then Katarina's friend came over and they played for a while.

Elyssa is growing like crazy. I have had to rotate though clothes sizes about every week and a half since she was born. I just washed all of the 3-6 month clothes on Friday for her to start wearing. The biggest challenge is to have the clothes fit the length of her arms. She has an amazing arm span. My concern right now is that we don't have a whole lot of 3-6 month clothes and most of the 6 month clothes that we have are summer clothes. I think I will be shopping for baby clothes very soon. I weighed Elyssa about a week ago and she was 11 lbs 3 oz. Last night I had an amazing night. Elyssa went to bed at 8:00 and I woke her up at 3:00 for her to eat. She went back to sleep and didn't wake up until almost 7:00. It was so great. Unfortunately Katarina was up a lot last night. Someday we will all sleep though the night. For now I will take the sleep I can get and enjoy all of the precious moments that I have.

The middle picture is Katarina ready for school. She has her "jacket" and everything.

Check out the arm span.

Bathtime Together

CHEESE

Katarina flying. If you look close you will see that she is wearing a cape.

Katarina wanting me to take pictures of her holding her sister.

Our Family of Four

Baby Elyssa Marie Glasmann was born at 19.19 on January 10th, 2011. She was 9 lbs. 12 oz. and was 23 inches long. She was diagnosed with strep B a short while later and was in the hospital for a week on an IV antibiotic. Virginia had placenta acreta, strep B, and later a bladder infection, and was released after six days in the hospital, to be moved to a different room in order to stay with Elyssa. We were all very happy when they were finally able to come home, one hour before Elyssa would have been in the hospital for a week.

Katarina has loved being a big sister so far. She is very gentle with Elyssa and loves to hold her, for about thirty seconds at a time. She has now learned that when she is done holding her she needs to let mommy or daddy know, and then wait for mommy or daddy to take Baby Elyssa, before just letting go. She is very attentive to Baby Elyssa and loves to help however she can. She has also become a very good mommy to her dolly. She likes to unzip her pjs and feed her dolly. We have also gone though a few burp cloths for dolly, she seems to spit up quite a lot. This morning dolly woke up with very wet pjs and had to be changed right away. Katarina was very careful to make sure dolly got cream, and even put the imaginary diaper in the trash. Last night we had a hard time making it through family prayer. Baby Elyssa was hungry but Katarina wanted to hold her for prayer. Katarina got a big "kiss" from Elyssa on the cheek as Elyssa was desperately searching for food. Elyssa then discovered Katarina's finger and Katarina was delighted that Elyssa kept sucking on it. Katarina kept sticking her finger further and further in her mouth. Elyssa gagged a few times but Katarina soon figured out how to do it right.

I love watching Katarina hold her little sister and give her kisses. So far, that is my favorite part.

Baby Elyssa, welcome to our family. We are so happy you are here and we love you very much!

Family Pictures

We had a great time taking pictures and they turned out great. No need to say more.

Katarina's New Bed

We decided not to buy a toddler bed but to just go straight for the bunk beds. The bed showed up yesterday and we rearranged the furniture last night. Katarina was very disappointed when she learned that daddy wasn't going to assemble her new bed right then. She kept pointing to the empty part of her room and saying, "new bed goes there". The first thing she said to me this morning was, "Daddy make new bed now?" A short while later Daddy was woken up so that he could start working on it. He was very happy to find out that the desk section and the drawer section were completely preassembled so all he needed to do was put the beds together and attach the top bunk. Katarina has been so excited all day. She was sad when she learned that she couldn't take her nap in it because there were no mattress yet. They are supposed to show up tomorrow (hopefully). She was also very happy to move all of her clothes into the drawers on her new bed (which happen to be lined with cedar, and smell wonderfully). She said that she would share her old drawers (the changing table) with the baby. It is funny to me that we could now have three children in that bedroom. Maybe we should have some sleep-over.