Happy Birthday Kensington!

Wow... can you believe it's been two months already. Where did the time go? Let's just recap a little bit of what's happened in the last 8 weeks:

• Over 7000 visits to this blog, from 33 countries. We're impressed, and honored.


• Over 540 feedings & 700 diaper changes. Yes people, we do count. When we took her from the hospital, they gave us a Pampers baby feeding and changing schedule chart - but only 5 days worth. So I scanned it and modified it and then made multiple copies. It helped with the first doctors visit because it was two weeks after delivery and it helped identifying constipation. We've made the template available here, because i couldn't really find anything online when I checked.


• At 2 months now, she's just now fitting into her 0-3 months clothing.


• Her sleeping patterns are irregular. She'll sleep through the night for a week, and the next night she'll be up a couple times (which last night is the first night I didn't wake up to her cries. Chris did. I was so proud of her when I woke up this morning thinking she'd slept through the night until I saw an empty bottle next to the glider).


• With that being said, we've lost approximately 150 hours worth of sleep, collaboratively. Don't get us wrong... we're not complaining. We just can't wait to ship her off to boarding school so we can sleep in on Saturday mornings.


• She's been to a sitter 4 times. Once for the day, and the others between 1-2 hours.


• I've now gotten over the guilt period. Meaning, I felt guilty when someone offered to change or feed her. I don't know why... I just thought, "I'm her dad... you don't have to do it. I can take care of it." Now, you want to change her, go for it. I'll pick her back up next week.


• We've taken over 900 pictures of her. Now, not all 900 are great quality. Anytime you're taking pictures of a squirmy baby, you have to take 15-20 to get one that's in focus and not with a crazy baby face. But we've kept all of them.
  
• I've cried in public multiple times while holding her. We were at Michael's this week and over the intercom, the song, Amazed, by Lonestar came on and I started sing out loud to her. Every time our eyes meet, This feeling inside me... Is almost more than I can take. Baby when you touch me, I can feel how much you love me and it just blows me away. I've never been this close to anyone or anything - I can hear your thoughts. I can see your dreams. I don't know how you do what you do. I'm so in love with you. I didn't care who was looking... and people were looking (it could have been me walking up and down the aisle sing to her at a normal volume). Tears were flowing down my face uncontrollably.


• I've been pee'd on over 20 times, pooped on at least 3. Chris's numbers are also impressive, but I still hold the record. Not that I'm proud of that.


• We've gone through five... yes 5, bottles of Shout/Spray-n-wash. It aint pretty.


• Katy Perry has competition... I too have kissed a girl, and liked it!

It's a miracle...

No, we didn't see the face of the Virgin Mary in our asiago bagel this morning, one of our Sid Dickens didn't weep throughout the night, nor did Pope Benedict XVI quietly canonize Princess Diana without the press getting wind of it... it happens to be - drum roll please - Kensington slept a whole eight hours last night! [Thanks Steven and Grant - just the recommendation of the book yesterday got her to sleep throughout the night :) ] Hallelujah!

Chris, Kensington and I spent last Saturday and Sunday away from home... yes, it was our first official weekend get-a-way [we're not counting being sequestered like contestants from Big Brother in a hotel or a beach house waiting for clearances]

We spent Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday morning at Aunt Cathy and Uncle Kyle's house. Chris and Kyle did "manly" chores (hung light fixtures, ate fiberglass, made numerous trips to Lowe's and Home Depot, etc.), while Cathy, Kensi and I stayed behind and had bath time and Cathy was nice enough to allow me to take a nap while the Miss America pageant was on (Miss. Georgia got ROBBED!). As we've said before, Kensington - like many infants - doesn't enjoy bath time - and the pictures show Aunt Kathy just how much she appreciated all of her efforts.

[double click photos for a better view... sorry, had to split it up to 2 pics because Blogger wasn't letting me upload all day]

In addition to bath time, Saturday was the first time we had to call the doctor for advice. You see, On Thursday when we saw him, we told him she hadn't gone poop in almost 24 hours. He said to give her a little Karo syrup in her formula and it should take care of that. Should being the key word there. So we get home and give her syrup and wait. Friday comes and we give her a tablespoon more. Nothing. Saturday morning again... nothing. So when we got to C/K's, I call the doctors office an got the answering services. Within 10 minutes, I got a call from the pediatrician on call - whom I've never met or talked to. In her very deep foreign accent I get, "Is this your first child?" "Um... I'm not trying to be neurotic. Your office told me on Thursday to give a teaspoon of syrup and it should take care of it. We did that and it's now 48 hours since we've been to your office and she still hasn't gone #2 (roar in the background because I said "#2" instead of having a bowel movement). "Give her two ounces of pear juice with 2 ounces of water. That will clear her up." Great! I get off the phone and tell Chris to run to the store to get pear juice. Cathy then questions, "Do you mean prune juice?" Umm... the doctors accent was pretty thick and hard to understand. "Better get both". When Chris and Kyle left, we checked BabyCenter.com and found out that it was indeed pear juice, and formula babies can go 4-5 days without going "#2" before you should worry. But the site told us of a massage technique that could help the baby... so we did that for three minutes and the great explosion of 2009 occurred. From both ends. Pear OR Prune juice were no longer needed :)

Calgon, Take Me Away!

Okay… between the 3000 calorie burning boxing game and sledding into a tree yesterday, I’m in pain.

This morning we were up before the girls were… 7:30. Not bad. I decided that I would make the coffee this morning and give Chris the morning off. I pour myself a bowl of some high-fiber/high-protein grain and splash some skim milk over it.

M2 came downstairs and Nickelodeon was back on. Zoey 101 was playing. Apparently a repeat as they claimed this was a “stupid one” – but watched it anyway. Chris headed off to an a.m. meeting for an hour and I played time-keeper for each of them to ensure they had equal “Webkinz and email” time. Chris was back and it was more Uno Attack. I love that game!

After I made sure they ate at least half of their portions of veggies on their lunch plate (come on… it was sugar-snap peas. It’s not like I gave them broccoli or lima beans), we bundled them up and headed back to the snow tubing mountain. We didn’t tell them where we were headed. It was a surprise.

Once we got there, Mollie got excited. I told her that now that Chris was here with us, I would be able to go tubing with her and if Meggy wanted to stay behind, Chris and she could do something else. Meggy decided to watch us come down the mountain once to see if she wanted to give it a try.

Mollie and I picked up our individual tubes that would zip us up the mountain. I made sure she was comfortable with going up the mountain alone, as there was not a group tube to go up (being that they had 6 and 7 year olds doing it, I knew that she’d be fine). Once we were up at the top of the mountain, Mollie started to look scared. I offered to walk down the mountain with her and she said no. I told her we could go down together on the family tube and that if she didn’t like it, we wouldn’t have to do it again. She agreed. We could see Chris and Meggy at the bottom of the hill (only because of Chris’s red vest), but they weren’t able to make us out. As we started down the mountain, I felt like this was going to be the one and only time down and she didn’t seem to like it. I was trying to show additional excitement to let her know that everything was going to be just fine. Halfway down the mountain, she started laughing. All was well.

Once we were down at the bottom of the mountain, the first words out of her mouth were, “That was so coooooool. Can we do it again?” Meggy, not being able to see us as we came down, was having nothing to do with it. Chris and she went back to the arcade and Mollie and I continued to tube down the mountain – together, of course – an additional 16 times.

As we got in the car to head home, they were already planning their next trip to see us. Bumper cars, tubing and horseback riding are their future plans.

This parenting stuff isn’t that bad…

OMG, OMG, OMG...

... my comments, not theirs.

5:45 a.m. – Chris is out of bed, in the shower, and then prepping for a board meeting. I hit snooze.

6:45 a.m. – Still hitting snooze on my Blackberry. Eyes crusted shut because I slept in my contacts and Chris enters to tell me that he’s headed out the door and coffee has been made.

7:00 a.m. - Praying that the girls are still in bed. Hit snooze again, promising it’s the last time. Whatever!

7:30 a.m. – The girls are up and Nickelodeon is on T.V. I head downstairs, pour a cup of the worst coffee I ever had (Chris and I are still trying to figure out what went wrong. I think he hit ’12-cups’ on the coffee grinder and used 6-8 cups of water).

7:32 a.m. – M2 says they’ll wait on breakfast. Good news for me as I need to make a fresh batch of java.

9:30 a.m. – So far we’ve watched numerous episodes of The Fairly OddParents and SpongeBob SquarePants (Oh! Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Absorbent and yellow and porous is he! If nautical nonsense be something you wish... Then drop on the deck and flop like a fish!) Is it too soon for a Bloody Mary? I think not… but I refrain.

9:30 a.m. – Mary Cay calls. She’s headed to the beach. We look out the window and it’s snowing like crazy!

9:32 a.m. – I start breakfast. Scrabbled eggs, sausage, potato wedges, wheat toast, bowl of fruit and juice. The girls say, “do you have cereal?” I drink more coffee :o)

10:30 a.m. – 30 minutes after they have finished eating, we dip into the heated indoor pool. There is synchronized swimming movements, a made-up dance, hand-stands, flips, and piggy-back riding. Life is good.

11:45 a.m. – Out of the pool and now drinking hot cocoa. “Oh! Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” is playing in the background. Honestly… why is there a pineapple house in the ocean? It makes NO sense. Life goes on.

12:45 p.m. – Lunch time. This time I ask them what they want first. I’m a quick learner. (smile). Corndogs it is.

1:00 p.m. – We’re out the door and headed to the arcade. I fill up an EZ Card with cash (what… no tokens anymore???) and we have the place primarily to ourselves. We spent 90 minutes playing Dance-Dance Revolution, Pin Ball, smash the gopher looking thing in the head with a big hammer, basketball, boxing (it says you loose an average of 3000 calories playing the game – I spent 7 minutes and not only was I out of breath but I was sweating like a racehorse and I couldn’t move my arms anymore. I KNOW I will be hurting tomorrow), air hockey, motorcycle racing, and more. What a fun-filled time. We counted up the tickets we won and I spilt my 200+ between them (after all that time boxing, it ended up being a non-ticket winning game. Tears flowing down my face).

2:30 p.m. - We head over to go snow tubing. Meggy sees the mountain and says “no way” which irritates Mollie. It was something she’s been looking forward to doing all week. I come up with at least 13 (yes, 13) different activities from going to the movies to visit the reptile and monkey farm. Everything Meggy wants, Mollie refuses to do. Everything Mollie wants, Meggy rejects. Oh… I see the game they’re playing. I refuse to play along. I put them back in the car and it’s back to the house we go.

2:45 p.m. Back at home. Hannah Montana is on the Disney Channel. I’m so confused as to who is who. First she’s Miley with Billy Ray Cyrus as a dad, and has three brothers that aren’t really her brothers and then she puts on a wig and he puts on a mustache and she turns into Hanna Montana and he turns into her manager and no one can tell it’s them? I just don’t get it. I blow up with a pump a “Surfster Ice Inflatable Snow Sled” (Thanks Jeff, for what turned out to be an amazing Christmas gift). The girls get excited. We head across the street to our neighbors house. They’re not here this weekend and they have a huge inclined driveway that is now covered with snow. I go first and build the path. They can’t wait to follow. I show them how to steer with their body weight and tell them that if they do think they are headed for a tree, to roll off. We each go a couple times and all is well. Now I’m going to do it and go with a running start. Not such a good idea. I head for a tree and I didn’t take my own advice. I slip off the driveway and into the woods I went. A pine tree stopped the sled… another thing to be sore about tomorrow. Meggy’s up next and she’s headed into the same path I just took. I yell “roll off, roll off”, but she stays on. I run down the driveways and end up slipping on the ice and now I’m sliding faster than she is… The sled hits the tree and a yell escapes her. I pick her up and she screams that her finger is bleeding and broken. I take off the glove – nothing. Then she laughs at me and says she wants to do it again. Thoughts of Mary Cay killing me run through my mind. I let them continue sledding, but only halfway down the driveway.

3:45 p.m. - We head back into the house and Chris calls to see if we’re home. He’s 2 blocks away.

4:00 p.m. - “Oh! Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” Seriously folks… is this the only show on Nickelodeon?

6:00 p.m. – 2 games of Uno spin, 3 games of Uno attack, 2 bags of popcorn, and a tutorial of what Webkinz are. Dinnertime. Again… ask first. Pizza it is.

7:00 p.m. – Movie time. Disney’s Ratatouille, with a twist. (Chris wanted to watch Ratatouille, M2 wanted Transformers… so they told him we were watching Ratatouille 2, the non-animated version. He never bought it).

9:00 p.m. – Shower time (for us all)

10:00 p.m. – Bed (Thank God!)

O-M-G, L-O-L, B-F-F-L...

God... please let us adopt a boy.

Tonight was the first night Chris and I tag-teamed baby-sitting the Mollie and Meggy duo. I don't know how he did it by himself yesterday, poor thing (ha ha ha ha).

The first 45 minutes was filled with high-pitched screams and acronyms such as OMG, LOL, and BFFL. Well… those were the only ones that I could make out. There were others thrown around that I’m still scratching my head on. Duncan, our black lab, enjoyed Molly’s energy as she spent an hour playing fetch with him, and Gossip, our cat, ran and hid under the bed within the first 5 seconds of them entering the house. It wasn't until the decibel levels returned to normal did she came down to join in the fun.

After we got them settled in we made Gordita’s and sat down for dinner that included conversation topics that I’m sure Chris and I will be spending years talking about – “How was school today?”, “What did you have for lunch?”, “What homework do you have?” etc. After dessert we popped popcorn in the antique-esk home theatre machine (thanks for the Christmas present mom and dad) and watched a PG-13 movie (yes, we’re rebels!) that they claimed they 'watch all the time'… and by the way they were reciting lines and saying, “oh… this is my favorite part coming up”, I guess they were telling the truth.

After the movie, Chris turned on the light show in the Jacuzzi and the girls jumped in. It was a relaxing moment for Chris and the warm water got them tired enough that once they hopped in the bed, they were out like a light.

Two days down… two more to go. I hope we make it! :o)

Official Members of "The Baby-Sitters Club"

Tonight Chris is at Mary Cay's in Easton. I had a late night meeting so I decided to go straight home and not add an additional hour to my already 2 hr commute.

Since we announced our adoption journey, people are willing to help us by loaning their kids to us so we can get use to the diaper changing and feeding/burping routine with their own young ones ;0) I think we're booked with gigs until November 2012.

MC left for Florida and we will have Mollie (10) and Meggy (8) until Monday (okay... so they are not in the diaper changing stages - - I hope). Chris spent the evening with them at their basketball game and tomorrow when they get out of school, he’ll pick them up and they’ll spend the weekend at our house. Chris already made the first mistake of the experience. He was yelling for Meggy as she was going up to make a hoop (that is the correct sports term, right???). Then he hooted and hollered when it went in. It’s a non-competitive, non-yelling league that doesn't even keep score (which, btw, I'm loving. who needs the pressure of winning a sporting event when they're not in High School yet. It's all about learning the game first). He received the look of death by all others attending the game. Oops. Thank God it wasn't me... I would have brought the pom-poms.

Lets see what tomorrow brings…