Frankie's photos

The other day I went to download the pictures from the camera, and there were 61 photos. I was surprised at the volume, until I saw the majority of the photos were of this ilk:



Our little Ansel Adams.

Happy 4th of July!

Why wear one pair of sunglasses when you can wear two in this land of plenty?

Mommy's little firecracker

Happy birthday, America!

Roommates

The Murrys moved in! For those of you who hadn't heard, our good friends, Jeff, Sarah, and Hannah Murry are living with us on the third floor of our house for the next 6 months or so. They will soon be adding another baby girl to their family; Sarah is due August 24th. We're going to have 4 kids under 18 months in this house!

Have I mentioned how much I love our new house? It's been wonderful. Right now, there are 5 adults, 2 toddlers, a newborn, a dog, and a fish all living comfortably in this 5+ bedroom, 2.5 bath house. The downstairs has a living room, dining room, half bath and kitchen with a nice deck on the back and a small yard with a grassy area and lots of squirrels for Maisy dog to chase since we actually have three trees in the backyard! The second floor has three big bedrooms, a full bath, and an office. The largest bedroom in the front of the house we've designated as a playroom/guest room. It connects to the office, and has been a pleasant, sunny place to spend time during the day. The third floor has two more bedrooms and a full bath where the Murrys are living. With almost 3000 square feet, there is plenty of room to roam.

We've been getting used to the new neighborhood, finding out where the best places are to eat, shop, etc. We've meet a number of our neighbors. Everyone has been so friendly, wanting to introduce themselves and get to know us. Many of the residents on our street have living here for a long time, and consist of families in a wide range of ages. Coming from Cambridge where everyone (it seems!) is in their 20's, it's nice to have a mix on our street.

Frankie's Mimi sent her and Dexter a box of clothes - thanks, Mimi! While the clothes are adorable and mom and dad appreciated them, Frankie and Hannah particularly enjoyed the box:



One of Frankie's new dresses:

Dexter is gaining weight well, he's at 9lbs, 7 ounces at last check. And he should be, because he eats all the dang time. He's a bit of a lazy nurser - he eats for 5-10 minutes, falls asleep, and I have to wait for him to wake back up again before he wants to eat again. He's still hungry, mind you, he just needs a little digestion time or something. This makes for some rather long nursing sessions where he eats on and off for 90-120 minutes. I've learned to do other things while I wait for him to wake back up, like write this blog post!

Sometimes he gets down to eatin' and is done in 30 minutes, but those sessions are usually followed by 30-120 minute sessions of gas pains. He'll sleep for 10 minutes, and then cry for a few seconds, want to be held, and then go back to sleep. This is one thing during the day, but like water torture at night. Just as I think it's finally over, put him back down, and drift off to sleep, he's fussing again. The good news is when he doesn't have gas pain, he sleeps soundly, and for several hours at a time, so I'm hoping that once his digestive system gets a little more robust and the gas pains subside, he'll be a good sleeper.

He's not eating on any kind of discernible routine. I would love for him to eat consistently every 3 hours at this point, but we're not there yet. I've decided to give him until at least 6 weeks before I try and start helping him to eat bigger meals every 3 hours, instead of getting away with snacks that don't really fill him up. I know I could start this now since he's so big, but I feel that he's still so young, and I have help with my mom here, so it's not so bad.

Sleeping with his arms above his head, just like Daddy:

This boy has crazy hair. I try and comb it down after a bath, and as soon as it's dry, it does this: Just like his dad, again.

So you think you can dance?

I'm thinking of getting Frankie in to audition for next season of "So you think you can dance". I mean, check out her sweet sumo-wrestler move. America's going to love her!


Dexter was two weeks old yesterday, and he's doing great. We're heading in to Cambridge today for a weight check at his pediatrician's, and he's put on about 6 ounces in the last 7 days, so I think Dr. Sigman will be happy with his progress. So far he's been a good baby (Kristen, please don't hate me!). Last night he gave me two three hour chunks of sleep, which I am very thankful for. He's sleeping well, and is generally easy to soothe. He gets boughts of gas pain where he'll scream on and off for sometimes 2 hours, but I'm taking comfort in the fact that there is a clear reason for his crying. If he doesn't have gas, he sleeps peacefully.

He's a good eater, and we're doing a combination of breast-feeding and formula. I've always had low milk supply issues, and rather than pump and have it take over my life, I've decided to make our lives more manageable by giving him at least one bottle feeding a day, sometimes 2 if we're out and he won't or can't breast-feed. I've been giving him a bottle at the dinner time hour, which is working well for us. 4:00pm is my lowest milk supply time (a little known fact, but I think true for most women), and with all the craziness of dinner and Frankie's fussy hour, it's taken a lot of stress off to give myself permission to give him a bottle (or have someone else do it!).

Here's one of his periods of alert time:

Squeaky-clean Dexter

Strike a pose Dexter

Big Sister Frankie

More pictures!

The man of the hour

'nuf said. (thanks, Seth and Noelle!)

Momma and baby

Dr. Evil Dex

Frankie helps Daddy fix his bike

Frankie, Dex, and Nonnie in the play room (and why yes, that is an enormous Incredible Hulk cut out poster that Chris could not leave behind when they were giving them away free the other day at the 7-11. and why yes, it does freak me out every time I notice it out of the corner of my eye, lurking there behind the day bed.)

Frankie loves having Nonnie and Daddy to play with all day!

Family Resemblance?

Videos!

Here we are at the hospital, Dexter is one day old, and Frankie meets him for the first time.


This is from earlier today, Frankie sweetly helps her brother get comfortable. Until the end, when it's obvious we're still working on the meaning of "gentle".