Happy Father's Day!!

It has been a nice Father's Day weekend. My sister came down Friday night to hang out with us until today. It is always a good time when she comes and a little bit of a breather because she helps out so much with the kids. Another set of hands makes a big difference these days!! We spent a lot of time outside yesterday playing in the water since it was finally warm enough to do this. Jacob LOVES any type of water play, so he was on cloud nine.

My family (dad and his wife, Debbie, and grandparents) came to our house for a lunch cookout, which was fun. Lots of good eatin'! We finally gave them their wedding present, which we were excited about. Sharla went in with us to get them what we called a "newlywed package". We put several gift cards for restaurants and a video store along with an engraved picture frame and bottle of wine all in a flower pot for fun.

For Father's Day, Jacob and Bailey gave Dan gifts they made at daycare. Bailey photoshopped a picture of herself onto a handkerchief with a card and Jacob gave Dan a back of trail mix and a package of popcorn with a card. It's really sweet of the teachers to do this for the parents!

Of course I took lots of pictures this weekend, so enjoy the photo album below :)

Father's Day Weekend

Daddy Superstar

In Jacob's eyes, his daddy is a superstar. Whenever Dan enters the room, Jacob yells "DADDY!!" and just completely lights up. Dan could leave for a second and come back in and he gets the grand greeting from Jacob. It's honestly equivalent to the "NORM!!" from 'Cheers'. Jacob has a fascination with shoes and likes to bring us our shoes and try and put them on our feet. A few weeks ago I caught him stepping into Dan's sandals and successfully walking around in them. I grabbed my camera and caught a picture of it. I made him do it again so I could capture it on video for Dan to see. He wasn't as successful the second time around, but he managed to go a few steps!

Too Tired to Eat

A couple of weeks ago Jacob had a hard time making it through his lunch. He's done this before, but I caught it on camera this time. You know he's tired when he falls asleep mid-chew!!

Garage Sales 2009

I really enjoyed going to garage sales during my maternity leave. Bailey and I would hit as many sales as we could on Thursdays and Fridays. She was such a trooper getting in and out of her car seat and sling each time! I have to honestly say that I am going to miss hitting the sales. I became so addicted. I didn't find as many things as I did last year, but I did get some good deals. I mainly searched for toys and books, but the last week out I paid more attention to clothes and found some amazing things. I got lots of pants for both of them along with some items that I would feel guilty buying in stores, like 4th of July, Halloween, and Christmas outfits. Below are pictures of what I got this year....

Two Months

Miss Bailey is two months old. I'm sure all parents do this, but I constantly find myself comparing her to Jacob. I think I do it more to help predict what she'll do next (growth, sitting up, sleep habits, etc....) rather than to pit them against each other in a competition. It's funny how similar, yet different they are! For some reason, I keep thinking that since they have the same genetic make-up, they should be identical. It's so mind-blowing how they are their own person.

Bailey is such a joy. I can be having the toughest day and then just look at her and melt. She is very sweet and is already smiling and cooing at us. She is very reponsive to our voices and gets really excited when we talk to her. Her head is getting stronger, but I wouldn't say she holds it up on her own yet. At her two-month check-up last week the doctor asked how she does during tummy-time. I was so embarassed because I honestly haven't done that with her yet. She does lay on my chest a lot and can hold her head up okay, but I haven't put her on the floor on her stomach yet. This must be a second-time parent thing because I feel victory when I remember to feed her and change her while balancing Jacob, the house, work, and everything else!

She is still sleeping in our room, but she has graduated to the pack-n-play and is doing great. We'll probably move her to the crib sometime soon, but right now I still like her in the room with us. I've been putting her down earlier at night and she gets up at least once to eat, but she is going longer and longer.

The cold she got last week didn't amount to much, but she did end up with pink eye in both eyes and a little ear infection as a result of it. Poor thing!! We saw the doctor three times in eight days! Out of the six days of being back to work, I've only worked four. I really hope this doesn't continue and her immune system kicks in soon!

Unlike Jacob, she is smaller on the weight scale, but she is long like he was (is). She was 23 inches (70th percentile) and 10 pounds 5 ounces (35th percentile). Jacob had a huge belly at this age and all she has are a few rolls on her thighs. As far as I'm concerned she can stay small so she is easier to carry around! I was in such a hurry for Jacob to gain mobility, but she can take her sweet time. I'm not interested in chasing two kids any sooner than I have to!

New Blogs!!!

I've been slacking lately on the blog, but I've added three new ones today! See below for a blog about our visit with Dan's family over Memorial Day, going back to work, and Jacob turning 18 months.

I have several more blogs ready to post in the next couple of weeks, so keep checking back for more!!!

Back To Work

I can't believe that it is already time to go back to work. I really enjoyed my time home with Bailey the past two months and hate to give up my time with her. It has been a very busy maternity leave. I know that I will regret this later, but I decided to take advantage of being home and tackle lots of home projects, run errands, and go to garage sales. On one hand, it feels good to have gotten so much accomplished, but now I also feel guilty that I didn't spend as much time holding Bailey and just enjoy her.

With Jacob, I was so anxious to get back to work. I think that the difference this time is that the weather has been nice enough to get out of the house with her. I was literally stuck in the house for four months last time due to two months of bed rest and then another two months after Jacob was born since it was winter time and we were instructed not to take him anywhere. I had such cabin-fever.

I started her at daycare last Thursday and Friday in the mornings to help get her acclimated. She did great. Unfortunately, she started a cold Friday night and came down with a fever Satruday night. I called to talk to a nurse because you can't give a baby Tylenol until two months of age. She told me that she needed to be seen because of having a fever at her age. Luckily, our pediatrician was one of the doctors on duty Sunday morning at our convenient care and gave me the ok to give her Tylenol. It broke her fever immediately and now she just has a head cold. I decided to keep her home today (my planned first day back at work) to make sure that her fever didn't come back and to keep an eye on her. I'm dreading sending her tomorrow. Jacob was sick non-stop his first year in daycare and I feel so guilty knowing that she'll probably repeat that. The infant room is so germy with all the kids with runny noses and drool everywhere. I wish there was a way to keep here home more during her first year, but there isn't. I have tremendous "mommy guilt"!!

I am finally starting to feel more like myself. I have had a heck of a time healing this time around. It took my incision five weeks to close up after my staph infection and then at six weeks, I got another infection which made a section open back up. It finally closed up again a few days ago. Yay!!! I still have a lot of sensitivity and soreness in the incision-area, but I think it is the scar tissue causing this. I went for my first run on Saturday and went two miles without a problem. I have a long ways to go before my body gets back to normal weight-wise. I still have a big pooch which is causing my clothes not to fit. I have no idea what I am going to wear to work! I'm just thankful that my run went well this weekend and hope that I can keep up my workouts and drop this baby weight!!!

Cousin Time

Over Memorial Day weekend, all of Dan's family came home to visit. It was great to see everyone, especially with three new additions since late March. Dan's older sister had her third baby five days before Bailey was born and his brother had his first a few weeks later.... all girls!! There are now seven grandchildren five and under. We also got to visit with his grandfather who will be 95 this year and his aunt from Florida. Of course, we had to take some pictures!!

Whole family (minus a few people)

Seven cousins

Audrey, Bailey, Rylee

Our family

Great-Grandpa Engel and Bailey

Great-Aunt Kay and Bailey