In the Viewfinder

This little guy used to be the only one in my viewfinder.  I spent 24 hours a day by his side while Daddy was off entertaining Orelia.

Daddy is back at work, and now I've got blonde curls and purple fingers to look at.

Often I'm looking at my girl with both hands full of sand buckets.

Buckets are taken on bikes.

Buckets are taken in wagons.

Buckets are obviously taken to the sandbox.

Buckets are even taken in cars.  Girl loves sand buckets.

My view is of pink fuzzy jackets.

Blue eyes gazing up at a balloon.

Joyful rides on a slide.

MORE buckets.

And my firstborn.  Sorry, Bennett, but I promise to start photographing you again soon.

Just One More Barrette

This pretty much sums up her personality.

If she wants barrettes, she wants all of the barrettes.  But if she doesn't want one in, you better not even approach her with one in her hand.

If she wants to pretend a stuffed animal is her baby, well she's going to put it in a toddler-sized Ergo carrier and carry another baby as a spare.

We received a wonderful book as a gift entitled "Just One More."  It's about a little girl with a striking physical resemblance to Orelia who also shares her constant insistence for "just one more" of everything.  Naturally, she is very drawn to this book and wants it read to her constantly.  "One more time!" she demands as soon as the book is finished.  That's my girl.

Orelia in a Box

Leave a giant planter around a toddler, and they will find a way inside.

She must have popped in and out of that thing a hundred times.  Orelia found her jack-in-the-box routine especially hilarious in front of Don and Candy.  

We were so glad they were able to come visit and meet their new grandson.

Bennett was thrilled to be in his Nana's arms.  

Please ignore the preschool paint stains - always a sign of a good day and a happy little jack-in-the-box.

Real Halloween

John and I were so excited to celebrate Orelia's first real Halloween this year.

Since becoming too old to trick-or-treat ourselves, this is essentially the first real Halloween for John and I in a very long time.

Luckily for us, Orelia's preschool had a Halloween parade, so she got to debut her costume early (and we got to see whether she would actually keep it on).

No problem there.  Our little monarch was pleased as punch to be fluttering around school.

It was so fun to see such a sense of pride on her face as she marched around with her daddy.

I ordered Orelia's costume months ago, and we talked about it constantly (she loves real butterflies), so I think she was thrilled to finally get to wear it.

Halloween night was a blast too.  We went to a generous friend's house for chili and partying before Orelia and a dozen toddlers hit the streets to trick or treat.

You have to experience Halloween in Palo Alto to believe it.  

There were homemade haunted houses everywhere, but luckily Orelia was mostly too young to understand what was supposed to be scary.  She had an absolute blast whispering "trick or treat" at every door and eating her two whole pieces of candy that night.  Once we got home, I hid her basket and when she woke up she forgot all about the candy that was left uneaten.  Ha.  

Bennett didn't come out for our Halloween adventure because he was busy relaxing at home with John's dad and stepmom.  (What a treat for us to be able to focus on Orelia's big night.)

 I felt a little guilty we didn't appreciate his baby-in-a-costume cuteness, so I brought out one of Orelia's old costumes for him to try on.

He promptly slept through the whole experience.

Bennett at Two Months

Happy two months to our sweet son!

We have been soaking up another month of snuggles with our littlest love.  He recently weighed in at 12 pounds, 12 ounces with a height of around 23 inches (both roughly 50th percentile).  His head is big and round - 41 centimeters - and 93rd percentile.

When he's in the mood you can't keep a smile off his face.

Luckily he's often in the mood.

Nothing melts your heart like a baby smiling when they see you walk into a room.

He's been making the sweetest noises lately too.  I always waited for Orelia to "coo," but never felt like her little noises matched that description.  I'm happy to report that Bennett is constantly cooing and it's everything I imagined it would be.

He recently dropped his fourth nap, so now he takes three long-ish naps every day.  We have high hopes that keeping him awake for a few hours before bedtime will help him eventually sleep longer at night.  Right now his longest sleep is from around 7:00pm until 1:00am.

He still loves his paci, and we are grateful for it every day.  It's always nice to have something up your sleeve to calm a fussy baby.

Playmats and swings are still our friends, but perhaps his favorite thing is to lay on the kitchen table while we all eat around him.  It's nice to have the family all together.

He still loves going for walks in the stroller, and he has been on many outings to Starbucks in his young life.

He's started to bat at things that entice him on his play mat and he's constantly kicking those chubby little legs of his.  He almost rolled from back to belly the other day, though I think it will be awhile before he actually completes the skill.

We are so lucky to have this little guy in our family.

Batter Up

My little sous chef has been out of practice for months, since I hadn't been spending any time cooking during the pregnancy.  

She and I are both happy to be back cooking now that she has experienced the joy that is brownie batter.

 Last time we made brownies, I offered her some batter, and she mysteriously refused to try any.

This time she realized the error in her ways, and there is no turning back.

 I think she could have stood there for hours licking every last iota of chocolate off the spatula.

Poor Bennett was very intrigued by the process but will have to wait many months before he gets a taste.

I'm sure once they both are at batter-eating age I will never get another lick again!  Such is the burden of the mother of happy chocolate-covered children.