Christmas has come early

The 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who airs today! Literally, it is like Christmas has come early because normally we have to wait until the Christmas special before getting our Who-fix in between seasons. To say I am excited is an understatement. I may or may not be contemplating having us all get back in our Halloween costumes again. 

She's got her spot on the couch already

The many faces of Marian

I attempted to capture the elusive baby smile. This is what I got instead.

"Oh hi. You wanted me to smile? Fat chance, Mom." 

Showing off her many chins and chubby baby cheeks. I love chunky babies! 

"I'm working on a surprise for you."

"The surprise is poop."

Getting sleepy. 

Big baby yawn. 

Jim decided to make her play air guitar. Clearly she thinks her parents are nuts. 

Taking pictures was exhausting. 

The stank face I got when she woke up and realized I was still snapping photos of her. 

The moon incident

I have a special talent as a parent. It seems I have a knack for taking everyday items and turning them into objects of terror for my toddler. Like the moon.

The other evening, Ella started to show a lot of interest in the moon. I thought it was a great learning opportunity. I talked to her about it. We looked at pictures in an old issue of National Geographic. I let her watch some neat little video clips NASA had produced. As the grand finale to this little lesson, I took her outside to look at the moon. She went off to bed rattling off the facts she had learned. I was one proud mama.

Fast forward to 4:30am. We woke up to her screaming bloody murder. All Jim could get out of her was, "Moon up high. Moon very scary."

Yes, I somehow ruined the moon for my toddler. If anyone can explain to me how I managed to do this, I will buy you a drink.

One month update

I can't believe it's already been one month since's Marian's crazy wild birth. Here's a quick update on what she's been up to in the past month.

Weight: As of last Thursday, she was 9lb 3oz. If I had to take a guess, she is at least a few ounces more, if not closer to 10lbs.

Diapers: We are using a mix of cloth and disposable right now. She still needs to chunk up a little bit before fitting into the one-size CDs and I can't figure out a way of padding the newborn ones enough to keep her dry through her big stretches of sleep. Until then, she goes in a disposable at night.

Clothes: She has outgrown all of the newborn clothes and is firmly in 0-3 month clothes.

Sleep: For the most part, Marian is a really good little sleeper. Most nights she'll sleep for 5 hours at a stretch, sometimes 6. Depending on when we go off to bed, that translates into a wake-up around 3 or 4am. After that big stretch she is back to being up every few hours.

Feedings: During the day she nurses about every 2 hours, then cluster feeds in the evening. Marian is more sensitive to what I eat than Ella ever was, so I've had to cut some foods from my diet. I'm glad we figured this out fairly early because once we did, her sleep significantly improved.

Daily activities: Part of the beauty of being the second child is Marian has quite the busy social schedule already. She gets dragged along to music class, library story time, and various play groups throughout the week. Considering she sleeps through a lot of them, I don't know how much she is getting out of them, but I'm sure she will appreciate it more as she gets older.

Milestones: I got my first gummy smile from her at 8 days old. She also rolled over once from belly to back, but I'm pretty sure that was more to do with the fact that she was on the bed and Jim was sitting on it too, making it slightly inclined. For now I'm calling that a fluke thing rather than a true milestone, especially considering she hasn't done it since.

Personality: Marian seems to be a lot more laid back than her sister ever was. Most of the time when she is awake she is calm, quiet, and serious. She is curious about what is going on around her but is content to sit back and observe everything.

Just chilling with her buddy George

Mommy and her photo taking are not very interesting

Doing some tummy time

Getting pretty good at holding up her head

Halloween!

In true nerd fashion, we all dressed up as characters from Doctor Who. Pretty sure the girls are going to hate me when they are older. I figure I only get a few Halloweens where I can force them into whatever costume I pick. Ella was a very crabby TARDIS, Marian was a sleepy Melody Pond, Jim was the Eleventh Doctor, and I was Amy Pond.

Marian as baby Melody Pond. Mainly I decorated her stroller since I didn't think she would be particularly agreeable to wearing a costume this year. 

Very cranky TARDIS

No smile so I settled for a glare

Slightly happier after trick-or-treating

The Doctor and the TARDIS

Ella was not overly thrilled with Halloween at first. Before we went out, she had a bit of a temper tantrum because 1. She had decided to use her nap time to strip naked instead of sleep 2. Marian got to be in the stroller and Ella had to *gasp* walk (yes, go ahead and call child protective services on me) 3. I dared to try and take pictures of her 4. It was incomprehensible to a toddler that the huge bowl of candy sitting out on the counter was not for her consumption. 

After we actually got out of the house she got into the swing of things pretty quickly. She still didn't understand why we weren't going into any of the houses and kept on trying to go inside. We made it to a fair number of houses before both girls decided they were done. Possibly the best part of trick-or-treating with a toddler is we were home in time for me to go through her candy, take out all the stuff we don't like, and then hand it out to all the unsuspecting children who stopped at our door. 

Hopefully all my readers (you know, both of you) had a great Halloween too!