Bye Bacuum

It's been really interesting and fun to see Olivia's speech develop. The more she talks, the more I feel like I get to see her personality. I don't know if most kids do this, but one thing that has made us laugh lately is that Olivia says hi and bye to everything, including inanimate objects. She tells her shoes bye, she says hello to her socks, she says goodbye to the car and the house. She's even started saying goodbye to her diapers by saying, "Bye stinkies." I've been wondering if this has been influenced by the book Goodnight Moon. She adores this book and both Yale and I have it memorized because we've read it so many times. If you're not familiar with the book, each page tells different things in the room goodnight. For example, "Goodnight comb, goodnight brush. Goodnight bowl full of mush." The part of this stage that seems particularly funny and intriguing is that Olivia even says hi to things she's scared of like the vacuum cleaner. Whenever we vacuum she often cries and is very eager for us to put it away. Yet, when she walks by the closet where it's stored, she waves and says, "Hi bacuum" even if the door is closed. It makes me wonder if this is her way to try to get over her fear.

Grunting and Squealing

We continued to be entertained by Sophia's funny old-man-facial expressions. I think it's so cute how newborns stretch and scrunch up their faces as they are waking up and after they've eaten. Sophia seems to be really chunking up. She gained almost a full pound between her two-week and her three-week check up. She is starting to sleep for longer stretches at night (the max has been 3 hours), but that is only if Yale gives her a couple of bottles before we go to bed. I'm completely amazed at how noisy such a little thing can be. I sleep in her room to make breast feeding easier, but I have to wear ear plugs so that she doesn't constantly wake me up with all of her grunting and squealing. Don't worry, I have no problem waking up as soon as she starts crying. Olivia seems to be adjusting to having a sister. There are times when all of the changes are hard for her, but that is to be expected. She often gives Sophia kisses and wants to hug her. She is also very curious about what the baby is doing. The other day Olivia sat on the floor and deliberately placed a pillow on her lap. She grabbed her doll, lifted her shirt, and started breast feeding her baby. She was so serious and determined. I couldn't help cracking up about that one. Olivia has been very interested in colors lately. She knows the basics (red, green, yellow, blue, orange, purple, black, pink). When we are out in public she loves to point and loudly announce the color of strangers' shirts. I'm glad she knows her colors, but it can create some kind of embarrassing situations.

Sophia

Finally I'm finding some time to write about our new little bundle. As you probably noticed, Yale has been working hard on redesigning the website, and I've been busy caring for Sophia and trying to get some sleep. I have to admit, we are both pretty enamored with our new daughter. We find her to be very sweet and pretty funny. She was born over a pound less than Olivia, and then she lost almost another whole pound before we left the hospital, so she seems very tiny to us. She swims in many of her little outfits. As you can see in the photos, she has lots of dark hair. We are both hoping it stays dark, but there are some blonde highlights in there that make me think it won't stay dark for very long. I'm quite sure we will find her adorable no matter what color her hair is. She has the smallest dimple on ther left cheek. Her Grandma Kaul was the first one to notice it. She seems to really like to cuddle. Yale loves to let her fall asleep on his chest. Sometimes she hangs out on his chest and they just stare at each other. It's pretty cute.

New Site

We did a bit of an overhaul on the site, you may have noticed. We also decided to put the photos on Flickr, because it's way easier that way. Hope you enjoy!