thought of the day

...the only person I have to be better than is the person I was yesterday...

Amelia's 2 Month Check-Up

Amelia had a well-baby visit today. She weighed in at 11 lbs 3 oz, which is about 3/4 of a pound more than Seth weighed at that age. She was a little over 23 inches long. That puts her at about 60th percentile for weight and 50th for height. Seth stood on the big boy scale for the heck of it and weighed in at 29.2 lbs. Amelia did very well with her check-up but did NOT like her shots. Seth got a Wonder Pets sticker for not destroying the exam room. We go back the end of June for a double appointment...Amelia's 4 month and Seth's 3 year check-ups.

Leebo is 30!

Thursday morning we ventured out for our first trip as a family of four. We spent the weekend with Elise and Chad and had a very busy weekend down in Charleston. Thursday night Chad had a softball game, where there was the coolest playground ever: Friday morning we went to the SC Aquarium. It wasn't as fun as it could have been, because there were a ton of middle school field trips going on, so it was a little unruly in places. But SURPRISE! We ran into Leebo there. Um, yeah, we thought he taught school. Nope, he works at the aquarium! We played dumb about his birthday party, because it was supposed to be a surprise that we were coming, he wasn't expecting out of town guests!
Elise and Chad have a chair that Amelia liked to snuggle in. It made for a good picture backdrop, too!
At least on the Mayse side, it always seems like the uncles are the cool ones, and the aunts are along for the ride. But there were times this weekend when Seth thought Elise was the best. Especially when she let him play in the sprinkler in her backyard.
Leebo and Nathan go WAAAAAAY back. They grew up in Kings Mountain together, were freshman year roommates and then fraternity brothers. Lee's wife threw him this party, and they have a one month old baby! (good woman!) It was fun to see them again, and Tim and Tiff (of Baird...Cubed fame) were there too, Tiffany is the cutest preggo ever! Another surprise bonus of the weekend is that Elise and I ran into Mary Margaret, Wes, and Charlotte (of And Baby Makes Three fame) at the outlet mall. I saw all my Charleston buddies in one day!
Sunday morning we drove down to Folly Beach and spent the morning with Tim and Tiff. Seth was ready to go to the beach, and had a blast digging in the sand and putting his feet in the ocean.Our water baby...she fussed at the shock of the water temperature, then quickly settled down. (just look back to Seth's one month picture to get an idea of how he felt about late-July ocean the first time we took him)
First family picture since Amelia was three days old!
We came home to rain, and lots of it, but that's okay. We need it, the yard looks great, the kids need to regroup, and I have a lot of laundry to do!

future pastors can't dance

Lisa and Michael are always saying how BUSY they are...well, somebody down there has too much time on their hands. Watch this link if you want to see some bad dancing. Or you can just skip to 3:08 to see Michael and 3:18 to see Lisa (why is she dancing with another guy?). Lisa said, "You should show it to Seth to see if he can find us in the video." Bad idea. He just wants to watch Michael dance over and over again.

the unobservant mom

I know I've inspected my kids head to toe hundreds of times. My job is to look for the nuances in babies. So I am stunned that it took me until yesterday to realize Amelia has a spot (birthmark? beauty mark? I'm not sure of the derm-lingo) on the back of her head that is the size of the end of my thumb! I turned her around to face Melissa and there it was staring at me! Granted, it is located where her hair is the thickest. I know it hasn't always been there, I just don't know when it showed up. Melissa had to reassure me twice that it looked fine, I think I just freaked myself out since I'd never noticed it before.

March for Babies 2008

Saturday the kids and I participated in Forsyth County's 2008 March of Dimes' March for Babies (formerly known as WalkAmerica). Once again the kids did awesome in their "two-kid" stroller. Most of the time Seth stood on his perch and watched the scenery, he especially liked when we saw the police motorcycles (which were barricading streets). Amelia slept through the whole walk. She woke up afterwards to watch Seth play on the playground.

Natural Science Museum

For this month's playdate, we met at the Natural Science Museum in Greensboro. The kids had a great time, and we didn't even get to explore the entire museum before it was time to leave for lunch. They have interactive exhibits in the museum and an outdoor area of animals. Seth was scared of the dinosaur room and called the meerkats "squirrels".

There was a petting zoo area where the kids could feed hay to goats and sheep. Seth was much more brave than he was last fall at the fair. All us moms are NICU nurses, so afterwards it was time to PURELL, PURELL, PURELL!!!!
Amelia slept through the entire museum visit...this picture is earlier in the week when she was playing with her daddy in the evening.

Auntie Marie, I fit in my outfit now! (seven weeks old)

Is there a baseball playing pirate doctor in the house?

My Gym, my music

At My Gym, Seth attends a class with a handful of other kids his age on Mondays, and then gets one hour of free play with all ages of kids per week. During the classes, when the music is playing, the kids have free reign on the equipment. When the music stops, it's time to sit in the center circle for some structure and to learn some skills. Besides watching Seth have a blast, the best part for me is that there is music playing all the time, I just sing along as I chase Seth around. Seth likes Hootie (because sometimes I have to hold his hand on the equipment). Last week I embarrassed myself with my 80s knowledge (although I made myself act like I didn't know Weird Science). Today was all college music...what a fun two hours of my week!

Amelia's first party

Last week we stayed just as busy as the week before, and it looks like this week is going to be more of the same. Last Wednesday I made a MASSIVE grocery store trip and then I had my OB checkup. It took two hours. The kids were so good. I took Seth for ice cream with sprinkles afterwards. Thursday we went to the mall, I was in desperate need of some pants. Friday Amelia attended her first party...we had a baby shower for my coworker, Stacey. This is the outfit Uncle Bryan bought her. At last minute we were able to make plans with Nathan's Aunt Margaret and Uncle Tony to meet for dinner Friday night. They were in Winston for the Davis Cup, we met them at Time to Eat.

Saturday morning Seth and I took Amelia to Cary for the first time. Seth promised me he'd let Gram cut his hair. It took some bribery, but it looks so much better now!

Our new game is to go up in Amelia's room in the evening and play on a heap of blankets. Seth asks for me to take pictures. This one is my favorite from Saturday night. Amelia really likes watching Seth right now.

Sunday I took the kids to church, and they were both really good. Amelia should have napped through the service, but was wide awake, so I got her out of her carrier to snuggle during the sermon, thinking that would cause her to fall asleep. Big mistake. The retired teacher sitting next to me stole her from me, I only got her back to take her up to communion, then she took her again! So much for indulgent snuggle time! And now there is a list of who gets her next time!

little blue dress

circa 1978..29 years later...

a little grin

Amelia has been back to being a happy little baby this week. She tried to stay awake most of the day yesterday, and slept the morning away today. At lunch, she started to make a little grin. Seth and I made a big deal out of it, so she kept doing it over and over again. You can almost see the dimple in her left cheek here...I'll post another one when she starts making the gummy grins.

Baby Blues

No, I'm not battling postpartum depression (although I think I'd feel a little better if I'd see some blue sky soon!). Two weeks ago the Baby Blues comic strip did this "The Days Are Long..." series. I usually like this comic because the oldest daughter reminds me of me, but I relate to this one on a parent-level. Just thought I'd share! (I'll add the other three as the week progresses...they aren't available online until two weeks after they run in the paper!)

Shedding some light on the subject

Seth has been spending a lot of time in our dining-room-turned-playroom lately, but last night he surprised me by turning on the lights when he went in there. He's tall enough for light switches now! Amelia is also growing and I'm starting to retire some of her clothes already! Sad day!

We (especially Seth) had a fun week...last Monday he had his gym class, Tuesday he played first with his sitter Kim while I went to the dentist, and then at Jake and Cami's while I went to the doctor, Thursday Case and Blair stopped by and we went to free play at the gym, and Friday Seth went to BounceU with Melissa and Case (I got the best end of that deal, I stayed at Melissa's with Blair and Amelia, and both the girls slept!) Friday night I had my first extended solo trip out, Melissa and I did our Dream Dinners session. Amelia wasn't very nice to her daddy, but he did fine. And they made up Saturday morning when she ate the bottle she didn't eat the night before.

Five weeks old...playing on my bed waiting for Seth to wake up Thursday morning.

Nathan requested another bottle feeding this morning, and the little stinker took it from him! We know it's just a fluke, but she held her own bottle for the second half of her feeding.

Seth still is choosing not to nap most days...last night he fell asleep on his beanbag chair with his hand in a box of CheezIts. The camera battery was dead, so I took a picture on my cell phone...so sorry the picture quality is so terrible!

Birthday Serenade

For the past few years, Nathan and I have been serenaded by Evan and Ryan on our birthdays. Looks like now we can finally return the favor...happy birthday, Lisa!

Remember WalkAmerica?

Well, this year the March of Dimes has changed the name to March for Babies, but the concept is still the same, to raise money to help prevent prematurity and birth defects. As I have for the past eleven years as I've been able, I will be participating this year. The walk is April 19th, and Seth and Amelia will join me in the "two kid stroller." If you would like to sponsor me (the website will accept donations as small as $5!) the link is www.marchforbabies.org/saramayse. Thanks!

Complex Imaginative Play

Jessica sent me this NPR article about the importance of old-fashioned play. I chuckled when I read about complex imaginative play...all day yesterday, Seth told Nathan to hold up a pillow, which was to be a door in a tree, because Nathan was Austin the grabbin' goblin, and I had to carry around a tiger noise stick that the Santa in the mall gave Seth because it was my wand (I was Tasha the flighty fairy), and Seth carried around a red plastic Easter egg that had a dragon inside of it, and he had deemed himself King Pablo. If Amelia was awake, she was either Tyrone or "lady in pink". (they're knights, that's right) If you can't figure out what the heck I'm talking about, Seth made us act out a Backyardigans episode...incidently the show is about five critters and their overactive imaginations!

the early bird catches the worm...

Amelia had her first bottle over the weekend. I'm hoping to start stockpiling milk for convenience, and let Nathan do a bottle every other evening for right now. She made slow work of the the first half of the bottle... ...but Seth wanted to help, and after that she gulped the rest right now! (You can tell by location that Nathan is an old pro.)

Seth walked in on me pumping, and was even more horrified of that than he initially was about breastfeeding...guess if I don't get it done before he gets up in the morning, that will be Thomas video time (somehow he has never watched a Thomas video before Sunday...he has been glued to his train table the past four days, we found the videos on PBS Sprout on demand and he loved them.)

Amelia's belly post bottle...I think we've had a growth spurt this past week!

Seth has decided he's too big for naps...in the past week he has only taken two. He will willingly go up to his room, but most days he just plays until I come get him. He doesn't beg to come out, so I'm not complaining. Simultaneously, there has been a huge change in the quality of his play; I have to think that they are related. He did this Friday morning while I was checking email...

I bought him a Dollar Store 25-piece Mickey Mouse Clubhouse puzzle and gave it to him Saturday night...it had been a rainy day and we'd been stuck inside. I had to help him a little bit with it, by last night he was doing it by himself! He's always loved puzzles, but I was amazed that he mastered it so quickly. (I will be buying the entire collection next time I run in there...hours of intellectual play for $1? You can't beat that!)

Amelia has started to show a cranky side (especially when tired and in the evenings), and we've been up with the chickens the past two days. She slept the day away yesterday, so I'm not going to complain about a 4:45am wake-up call, it could have been so much worse!

1/12

Amelia is one month old today! I put her on the scale with me this morning, and I think she's around 9 lbs. Some days she stays awake most of the day, others she sleeps most of the day. She has a good night time routine, getting up twice to eat, and sleeping in until about 7:30. Unfortunately, sometime between 3am and 5am she turns into a Snork. I'm not sure why that is the only time she needs to make such noises while sleeping, but at least she's not crying.

When she is awake, this is how Amelia spends most of her time...she really only fusses when she's tired, hungry, needs a diaper change, or wants to see the world from a different angle. And so you have a comparison... Seriously, Seth had colic and after he was about three weeks old, this is how most of our days were spent until he outgrew it at close to four months of age. Even our family can tell the difference when they visit. He wasn't a very easy baby, but he sure is a fun kid now!

I think Amelia is going to be our chatterbox, she already thinks she has something to say. Here is a little of her chatter...this is one of those instances that she got quieter as soon as I'd put the camera on her...oh well. Seth calls her the baby cat.

Timber!

One of the big trees in our front yard wasn't looking so hot the second half of last year; when it didn't bloom this spring, Nathan decided it had to go. On our end of the street, people are vigilant about their yards (see the second picture...they have in-ground sprinklers and Friday yard service year-round.) Nathan's mom took some pictures. The guys were outside for over three hours hauling branches. Nathan's chipper-shredder to make mulch is due to arrive this morning. I know what he'll be doing all weekend!

"Hey Daddy! This basketball goal is old. Should we pull it down, too?"