Easing Back In

I'm hoping that now that I'm neither pregnant nor packing-unpacking-repacking-unpacking, I'll be posting here more often.  I'm a little out of practice, so bear with me as I ease back in with some photos I took the other day at the San Jose Rose Garden and later at home.

Samuel August Jacobs

On Wednesday, July 2, at 12:01pm, we welcomed little Sam into the world. He weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces at birth and measured 20 inches long. We are all in love with our baby boy.

 

On Two Feet

I went away for the weekend and returned to this new development:

The Last Two Months

I just haven't seemed to find the time to post over the last two months.  I guess I was just too busy doing other things.  Important things. Things like watching seasons 1-4 of Parenthood. (FYI, I just checked how many episodes that is.  It's sixty-eight. Does it make it better if I tell you that I was watching while doing other things like folding laundry or cleaning the kitchen or drinking wine?) 

In any case, I thought that I'd just do a quick little summary of what we've been up to in the hopes that this catch-up post will remedy my blog lethargy of late.  So, what you should know about the last few months is the following:

We visited a farm and made friends with some goats and two cows, Roxy and Luna.

 

The girls and I joined another mother/girl child/younger girl child combo for a day trip to Half Moon Bay.

We celebrated Erin and J.P.'s wedding in Indianapolis.

The girls and I spent two weeks at my Mom's house, and Cousin D and Vola joined us for part of the time.

We caught up with dear friends.



We hit the splash pad, but forgot bathing suits the first day.

[When you're at a loss for the perfect way to make a first impression, why not try the Surprise Upright Spoon Maneuver? Works even better in a wet bathing suit! The kid in the stroller is taking notes.]

We visited the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and Air and Space Museum.

From DC, we headed up to Massachusetts, where we were reunited with Matt for the wedding of Jeff and Julia.   Alice had the honor of serving as their flower girl.  I entrusted the photography to the pros that day, so am sorry to say that don't have any of my own photos.

Once we got back to California, Alice jumped right into the routine of preschool.  So far, she's loving every minute of it.

And that, my friends, takes care of August and September!

Joanna Wins Crawling!

Aaaaand, she's off!

Sisters

I wasn't sure how Alice would adjust to gaining a sister. 

And, I have to admit, for the first few months of Joanna's life I was't sure how I was going to adjust to Alice's gaining a sister either.  The sleep! The meals! The schedules! The nursing! The one being loud when the other one was napping! 

And, I can't say that it's all roses 100% of the time. I mean, Alice still sometimes completely flips out at the prospect of having to share something with Joanna, or kicks her accidentally-on purpose, or rips away the very thing that Joanna is lovingly rotating around and around and around in her hand.  

For example, just last week, I stopped Alice as she was climbing into the stroller to inform her that she would be walking and Jo would be the one riding in the stroller. She stared at me with wild, horrified, disbelieving eyes, and began the craziest sounding laughter that turned into crying that I have ever heard. "You're JOKING, right? RIIIGHT?"(LAUGH-LAUGH-cry?-cry-CRY-WAIL.)  It was tragic.  I have high hopes for her future career as a star on the Lifetime network.

Anyways, where was I? Oh yes, the nice sisterly stuff.  All that is just a preface to my main point, which is this:  right now, these two little ladies are a perfect match for each other.

I can tell that they have very different personalities.  We were at Mass on Sunday, and Joanna was standing on our pew, facing backwards and beaming and graciously chattering with the family behind us while making eye contact with each of them.  At that very moment, Alice was at our feet, lying on top of the very narrow kneeler, trying not to expire from boredom.  Every now and then she would sigh dramatically, lose her balance and topple onto the floor.  The noise from her tumble was only exceeded by the noise from her stage whisper "I'M OKAY! I'M OKAY!" while clambering back into position on the six inch wide kneeler.

Jo Beeeean. Summersault tiiiiiiiiime. 

Alice pretty much operates at two speeds when it comes to her sister:

Speed One: All up in her grill

Speed Two: Further up in her grill

Tonight at dinner, she proposed that we all tell jokes to Joanna. She started.
"RUTABEGA!" Shouted right at Jo.
Crazy baby guffaws and insane three year old cackles ensued.

Joanna hangs on every word Alice says. Every syllable of invented Alice-ese that is barked at her from a distance of 1 inch from her face is received with delight and appreciation.

And without fail, the minute Alice starts laughing, Little Sister starts cracking up too. Chuckling her little baby chuckle with the high pitched squeak at the end, and banging her hand up and down like an old man slapping his knee.

Here, Jojo. It's a block on a cloff.  For you. 

Alice is also very, very loving toward her sister. I can't tell you how heart warming it is to hear an off-key alphabet song being sung/yelled in the back seat whenever the baby starts to get fussy. And guess what? It almost always works to soothe her.

The other day, I spied Alice patting Joanna on the back while saying, "I love you, Jo.  You're my marry.  We're married."

I gave the princess crown to Jo. She looks so fancy. 

All this to say that now that these two are turning into such devoted companions, it makes my job easier and so, so much more satisfying.  It is such a joy to sit back and watch these two sisters get to know one another.