Spring Is Here!

I absolutely love spring, especially when I'm home to enjoy it. Normally I work 9 hour days so on week days I don't get home until 5:30. That doesn't leave much time to enjoy the weather when I have to fit dinner, playtime, bath, and story time in before Chelsea goes to bed at 7:30-8. So being home on maternity leave with Brooke has given me more time to appreciate what I have... A beautiful family, a nice house, a lovely back yard to enjoy... Even when Brooke is fussy I love having the sunlight stream through the windows and the breeze coming through the sliding door. The weather really does impact me I guess because when it's sunny out I feel like I can do anything (like clean the house while the baby sleeps haha).

My sweet Brooke is already 9 weeks old. She had her two month check up on the first and weighed a hefty 12 lbs 5 oz! That might not seem like much to some people, but Chelsea didn't weigh 12 lbs until she was 5 months old! That's a huge difference to me.

Anyway, Brooke is doing amazing. She sleeps pretty well at night, usually waking once or maybe twice to eat. During the day she doesn't nap as well, but has a fair amount of play time. She loves being able to look around and is just starting to reach toward toys. Brooke also loves her sister. It's so cute! She'll smile when most anyone smiles at her, but she seems the most happy when Chelsea plays with her.

Chelsea's in the stage now where she likes to copy Mom or Dad. She'll repeat things we say (especially when we're talking to Brooke) and copy our body language (crossing her arms, resting her chin on her hand, etc). Usually it's sweet and cute, but I've noticed that she also internalizes how we talk to her. I guess that shouldn't surprise me, but it did at first. I would see that if we got frustrated with her for not listening, she would start yelling or run and hide in her room. Hubby and I talked about what to do and realized that we need to approach her bad behavior more positively. Plus I needed to stop phrasing everything as a consequence (if you don't do XYZ, you don't get to do ABC (something fun)). I've noticed that the more aware I am about how I talk to her, the better the outcome usually is. Chelsea is such an amazing, smart, good girl and I want her to develop an inner voice that's positive so I think this new approach will really help with that.

Hubby and I both commented on how much older Chelsea seemed after we had Brooke. I have to remind myself that she's only 2 1/2 and is still learning so much all the time. She's super smart though and can already identify capital letters A-Z and make each letter's sound. She can count to about 14, but hasn't quite mastered identifying numbers. She can identify her shapes and colors as well as manipulate the iPad, iPhone, and TV. Haha! She's also really athletic and can climb the curving ladders at the park (scary!), walk on the balance beam at gymnastics, do an unassisted summersault, and jump using only one leg. She also loves to sing and dance. Those are probably things that most 2 year olds can do, but since she's my first kid I can't help but think she's a genius. :)