Happy 2011!!

We spent new year’s eve with our wonderful friends, many of which we’ve spent the past 4 years (or more) of new years celebrations with! It is so much fun to see us all go from no kids, to one kid, to two! Oh how the years and the celebrations have changed. We did an East Coast celebration again this year, but this time at Maynard and Alison’s house. We had a great time and so did the kiddies!

Kiddie Table

However, the bubbly was NOT forgotten

The party (photo by Maynard)

As the year ends we are reminded of all of the fantastic things in life and look forward to a year filled with many more adventures, laughs and lots of love! We are so thankful to have all of you on our journey with us.

In other news, Maren had her 4 month shots yesterday. She did very very well and slept soundly all day.

Bundled up Maren after our walk home from the doctor’s visit

She is now 24 inches long, weighs 12 pounds and 13 ounces and her head is 40 cm in circumference. The doctor says she’s perfectly healthy and “normal”. The doctor also said to start Maren on a sippy cup with water instead of water or juice through a bottle. She also said we could start solids at 5-6 months, but not later than 7 months.

Todd came along on this visit and got his flu shot. Now everyone except Maren has received their flu shots, which will help protect Maren from getting the flu since she’s too young to get the vaccine.

Maisy has just started drawing “faces” this week. Here is her portrait of Daddy. Some have theorized that Todd is riding a large cat or a liger….

Maisy’s drawing of Daddy

On that note- wishing you health in 2011!!

Much love, Todd, Becky, Maisy and Maren

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