Dada feeds Maren her first bottle

The days keep flying by. Some days are easier than others. Some days are awesome!

Maren is now 5 weeks and 5 days old. She is still sleeping in our room in a baby bouncy seat. She tends to spit up copious amounts of milk if she lies too flat. We are thinking of evicting her from our room this week. (Maisy moved out at 6 weeks too). Maren tends to grunt a lot and it keeps me up, so I’ll sleep better when she’s in her own room. Sleep is precious around here. I’m just worried about what it will do to her sleep and wondering when I can give her crib a shot for night sleeping. She doesn’t sleep super long in it for nap time.

Cloth diapering is going wonderfully. I wish we would have done it with Maisy. It is so easy and economical! We just do a load of diapers every other day. It’s not too much work.

Maren has really started to smile and coo. It puts the biggest grin on all of our faces (Maisy included) when we see her smile. Maisy is still enamored with Maren. She is always there to cheer her up, share her night-night or help Maren with her pacie. Whenever she hears her cry, she is very concerned and wants me to go get her right away.

Play time

Maren does have her cranky moments and they tend to happen at night, usually during dinner. Having it dark helps Maren calm down, so we’ve had a few candle light family dinners.

Romantic dinner for 4

We had a very exciting day yesterday while we were buying our brand new VW Tiguan!! We love it and it has all the room our family needs. This is the first car Todd and I have bought together. We traded in our old Jetta that was 10 years old. It’s going to auction- they said we didn’t have to clean it out or anything- it goes to auction as is. The poor person that buys that car. They will never know…. we didn’t ever have it detailed.

Mama and Maren say adios to our special car

Family says goodbye to the Jetta

I know we should have a family picture with the new car, but we just haven’t done it yet.

We took the new car for a nice long spin out to Livermore to Joan’s Pumpkin Patch. It was great! It will be even more fun as the girls get older.

Family at Joan’s Pumpkin Patch in Livermore

We brought a picnic and had lunch pumpkin side. Maren didn’t dig the pumpkins too much.

Maren the unhappy pumpkin

But Maisy LOVED them!

Sister love at the pumpkin patch

Maisy also got to go on her first pony ride. Todd and I both expected her to freak out at the last minute and not want to go, but she hopped on like a big girl and giggled the whole way! We cannot believe how much she has grown.

Maisy’s first pony ride

Maisy has really developed her drawing skills and puzzle skills. She can put together 30 piece jigsaw puzzles and an entire United States puzzle without any help. She can identify a good portion of the states and can count to 13. She needs a little work on number recognition, but she’s doing great! Her vocabulary is enormous and she uses very grown up words. It’s cute and sometimes makes us ask, “Wait, what did you say?”

Life is slowly finding it’s rhythm again in our house. I’m really looking forward to getting Maren on a nap schedule. Morning naps now are hit and miss and she usually just ends up sleeping on me while I wear her around, but she takes a good long afternoon nap while Maisy does, so I can nap, clean up, pay some bills, make some phone calls or just have some me time. This nap however, is no guarantee.

Much love, Todd, Becky, Maisy and Maren

Maisy’s First Haircut from seaofclouds on Vimeo.

L ittle Maisy is growing up. Here she is, seated in her Bumbo, and getting her bangs trimmed. :( Her poor hair. I’ll miss her cute little bows. Enjoy a quick, four minute video of this first.

Maisy had seemed to be slightly interested in what Todd and I drink and eat lately- so we decided it may be time to start some rice cereal. We were hoping this would have the added benefit of helping her sleep all night as well.

As you will see from the video below, Maisy does not concur.

We tried for a second time tonight- this time in her bumbo chair thinking it was really the high chair that she had a dislike for, but she didn’t seem to love it anymore. We think we’ll keep trying for another couple of days and if she doesn’t take to it, we’ll give it a couple of weeks and try it again.

Have a great week,
Becky, Todd and Maisy

Maisy in her Rain Forest

Life is starting to return to “normal”

W e have had a couple more weeks with many new adventures and firsts!

Since I’ve had a couple of questions about the pronunciation of Maisy- it’s said Mazey. Now that that’s out of the way- here is our update and some pictures.

Grandma and Grandpa J came to visit from New York when Maisy was 2 weeks old and that was a very exciting adventure. It was the first time Maisy had ever been to a restaurant. Jupiter in Berkeley was her very first dining experience. She did pretty darn well if you ask me!

The following week we drove down to LA to attend a baby shower. It was hot as heck in LA. The car ride both on the way there and on the way back went super smoothly. Luckily she just slept the whole way. While we were there Maisy was able to meet lots of new people. She had her first trip to Santa Monica 3rd street promenade and the boardwalk. She liked it. She also really enjoyed meeting Elijah, her big boy cousin, Uncle Rigo and Papa. She also loved to see Nana and Auntie again.

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top left: Maisy and big boy cousin Elijah, top right: Todd attempting to take Maisy swimming on July 12th, bottom left: On the boardwalk in Santa Monica, bottom right: Out to lunch on July 11th

Becky and Maisy at the pool- it’s her first bathing suit!

Last week we just got more into our “routine” if we can call it that. We have started to try to ensure she is awake for at least a half hour after each feeding during the day and Todd gives Maisy a bottle of milk every evening around 8 which is the beginning of her bedtime routine. She’s been sleeping for a good four hour stretch after we first put her down- then she wakes to feed again. It’s sometimes hard to get her back to sleep after that, so she often ends up in bed with us. Usually she’ll be asleep for another three to four hours- and wake up at about six or seven. If it’s a fantastic day, we can get her back to sleep- if not, it’s time to get up and make the coffee! She is definitely getting more fun. She is smiling and enjoying looking at toys and being played with by us. We sing and dance a lot with her. Those are Maisy’s hobbies for now. We went to the doctor last week about her belly button- it wasn’t drying up- and she is now up to 9 pounds (and her belly button is all good now too).

She had her very first bath on July 12th. She wasn’t super sure about it.

So we all just keep learning and growing together! It’s getting more and more fun everyday. We will have our first airplane adventure later this month when we go up to Oregon for a wedding and to meet some family and friends.

Much love-
Todd, Becky and Maisy