Siblings in Spring

"Sweety little Girl"

  Lately I have been calling Liam my little comedian.  The things he is saying these days truly crack me up.  I love hearing him practice and try out new turns of phrase, and I'm always finding myself surprised at things he says that I just don't expect him to know.  I wish I could keep better track of all the funny moments, but some have already come and gone.  During Shirin's visit she made a big deal about the fact that he said "ockitopter" instead of Hellicopter.  Since then I have heard him say more than once that it is a HELIcopter.  He is so aware of everything we say including an old favorite of mine - "Oh shoot" - which he says in context, but which has recently been replaced with James' favorite "dang it!", which he also uses in the appropriate way.  I'll admit these aren't our proudest moments, but it is also kind of funny to see how quickly they catch on to things.  

In the last few weeks he has been practising talking about liking and loving things and especially people.  Recently he told me the he loves Drake and Stirling, but he doesn't like Sam.  And he proceeded to recount a time when Sam emptied out a dump truck full of sand. He has also listed James, me and Eowyn as people he loves (what a relief!).  Sometimes he begins a sentence with Actually, or Probably, which I find quite amusing.  He often asks to have his door half open, and he always requests just 6 mins to finish playing or doing what he's doing.  A few days ago I found him looking down on Eowyn who was crying on the mat, saying: "don't cry Eowyn, mummy's going to come and feed you quickly."  She is still "Floppy head" to him, and we hear his tone of voice mimic ours as he calls her "tiny little girl!"

Liam and best bud Stirling at the playground in the middle of a bush

Hanging out at the playground

Our first dinner at a restaurant since Eowyn arrived!  Enjoying pizza with Leigh, Stirling and Grayson at Bellavista.  It actually went really well and we went early enough to make it to bed almost on time!

I am loving seeing Liam and Eowyn's relationship begin to develop.  I know these are just the first moments, but they are so very precious.  It's the little smile she gives him when he looks at her, and his sweet pats on the head or belly, and all the eskimo and real kisses a baby sister could want, that warms my heart.  He is desperate for her to get more involved and often tells her to look at the game he's playing.  He'll call me if she topples over from sitting, or if she starts crying, and he'll rush past me to be the one who puts the pacifier back in her mouth if needed.  I just love it!

To clarify, that is not blood coming out of her head, it's the stitching on the diaper changing pad!

As for Eowyn, she is so big. I can't get over it myself and I'm her mother and seeing her every day all day!  Still she just seems to already be so big.  We laugh to ourselves at how we hoped for a better sleeper than Liam, and didn't get one.  Poor thing, I am sure she would be a whole lot better if it wasn't for the reflux or whatever it is that makes it difficult for her to be on her back.  The good news is that after a while of trying to make her work in the way one assumes a baby should, we finally figured out how to work around her special needs and still get some rest and some things done.  So we have resorted to letting her fall asleep on our chests most times at night, and then after anywhere from 1/2 hour to an hour we transfer her, belly down of course, onto the bed.  This way we get on average 3 hours sleep at a time out of her.  The last few days we have managed to get her to sleep in the swing for the first bit of her night time (normally starting around 9pm or so) and that's made it a bit easier for us.  She is feeding another couple of times during the night, usually around 3.5 to 4 hours in between.  So although our backs are buggered from bad sleeping positions, at least we are getting some kind of rest.  Of course we look forward to that getting better some time too, but meanwhile it's better than nothing.  Naps during the day are very often 10-25 mins long, especially the ones in her crib on her back.  I really do think it's the position that doesn't allow her to stay asleep.  Recently she has taken a few very short naps during the day, and then a longer one at some point in the afternoon, and that is either in the swing, or on me and then transfered after an hour or so.  Hey, we do a lot to try and make sure she gets her rest!  

We also now have a passport for her, so we are free to travel, though that will be an event in and of itself!

James and Eowyn on the way back from Zurich - passport mission complete!

Me and Liam on our way home from a thankfully uneventful, and fairly easy trip to Zurich

 SLEEP UPDATE!

Since I wrote this a few days ago things have started to shift towards some kind of a vague rhythm with Eowyn, which is very exciting indeed.  For the last week we have had a much fuller night's sleep.  The pattern I mentioned above seems to be sticking, and now we have been bathing them together around 6:30pm and then getting both ready for bed so that somewhere closer to 8pm she's going to sleep in the swing.  She'll sleep in there till her next feed around 11pm or so, and from then on we put her belly down between us after feeds (she no longer seems to need quite so much time on us, so after 10 or 15 mins she's often fine to be transferred).  She is also taking a short nap in the morning - around 30 mins, one long one in the early afternoon (2-3 hours!) and another short one around 5pm.  Or something close to that.  I'm really excited about this development but not so excited when we have to start taking away the crutches - like the swing!

Some cute pictures of Eowyn smiling and such!  These are all from the last week or so.