Amélie 2.5 Years Old

Amélie is my big girl now. She amazes me every day with how much she learns and with her great memory. Since Clara was born, she seems so much more grown up to me and she's only 2.5 years old.  I think it has a lot to do with how much she can say. Her English accent and expressions are adorable and sometimes she says the most random and funny things ("Mummy, shall we play now?", "That sounds like great fun"). She's definitely had a growth spurt in the past couple of months or so, going up a couple shoe sizes and needing lots of new clothes.

She's becoming my little sidekick and absolutely loves helping and getting involved in anything I do. We love having chats about our day before bedtime and even watch Full House together. Our thing lately has been cooking together. She'll climb up onto her stepstool and help me wash vegetables and mix ingredients. We love making pancakes in the morning and muffins from time to time. Mealtimes are a struggle sometimes, but keeping her entertained and having at least one thing she likes helps.  She loves imaginative playing - doctor and an airplane ride are a couple of favorites. Most recently, she's mastered going on Andrea's tablet and playing toddler animal puzzles (by herself). It's incredible how fast she's picking up technology and probably knows how to use my iPhone better than some adults :)

Amélie is the best big sister. She is so excited when Clara wakes up in the morning and we both go to her to give her kisses. The other day, I caught Amélie caressing Clara's face and giving her a cuddle when I left the room for a minute. It was the sweetest because it was unprompted, just sisterly love. There are moments she tells Clara to stop pulling her hair or doesn't want to share her toys plus she'll ask me put the baby down if she wants a cuddle instead.

The classic toddler tantrum happens from time to time and it makes me want to pull my hair out, but we survive using different strategies (either leaving the room and waiting for her to finish or distracting with something else). I can see how the term threenager has come to be and am so looking forward it to be over.

In September, Amélie started going to preschool three morning a week and in the past month is now loving it. It took her a while to get adjusted and she's quickly making friends and looks forward to going to school. With that and the new addition of a little sister, there has been a little bit of a regression in potty training recently and I really hope it will pass soon.  It mainly happens if she's very distracted and so into playing that she kind of forgets to go, but it's been happening more frequently than once in a while so we've been using stickers for encouragement and reminding her tons.

I feel like I can write tons and tons more on how Amélie has grown, but I'll call it a night and leave you with a few pictures instead.

                                                                  

Clara Three Months

Clara is three months old today and I can't believe she's not a little newborn baby anymore. She's been such a a good baby especially this past week when she's slept through the night (9pm-7am) a few days in a row without waking up at all. She's started to wake up again once for a feed, but it's usually pretty quick and she'all go right back to sleep.

She's still feeding about 2-3 hours during the day, but not cluster feeding as much in the evening. She's 5.55 kilos and right below the 50th percentile for her weight. I thought about pumping and giving her a bottle with breastmilk in the beginning, but now I've decided I can't be bothered so exclusive breastfeeding it is!

When she was about 2 months Clara rolled over from her front to her back and this past week, she's done the more difficult manoeuvre of rolling from her back to her front. She's also cooing and babbling a lot plus the most smiley in the morning. She loved playing peekaboo just before bedtime today, I haven't seen her smile/laugh so much!

Amélie continues to be very sweet with her. Today she called her gorgeous and then said, "hello, my precious little baby Clara." Sometimes she'll tell me to put the baby down when she wants to be cuddled, but that's usually around nap/bedtimes or when she's particularly cranky.

We have an exciting weekend ahead with the family in London for Maria's wedding. Then we are looking forward to a couple quiet weekends before Thanksgiving!

Happy 3 months baby Clara.

Clara Two Months

Clara is already two months old and is getting cuter by the minute. I'm feeling much more like a normal person these days by getting more sleep and having more of a routine down. Amélie has started going to preschool three mornings a week which also helps me tremendously.

Clara is such a good little baby. She's grown so much in such a small amount of time (4.9 kilos) and she is long outgrown her newborn clothes and even on to some 6 month clothes.

Breastfeeding is still going well and she continues to feed every 2-3 hours during the day. She's down for the night around 9-10pm and will usually only wake up once in the night for a quick diaper change and feed until she's up for the day around 7. With Amélie I was so worried about a schedule, but Clara just follows along with Amelie's that it all kind of works out.

She's started smiling though it takes some work! She doesn't give out those smiles easily, but when she does it's just the best. I mean, look at the first pic - those eyebrows and that serious face!

Amélie is still very sweet with Clara, but is now asking me for more and more cuddles plus asking me to put the baby down when she needs me. I feel like one of them is always waiting for my attention and I can say that most of my meals are eaten in 5 minutes, standing up. Despite this, I'm much more relaxed about everything this time around. I don't freak out as much if one is crying, breastfeeding in public isn't a huge deal anymore plus I just know that it will all be fine sans worrying.

We're headed for our first trip to Italy since Clara was born in a couple of weeks. She already has her American passport and we are getting her Italian one next week. We have a busy October ahead with lots of weekend activities which we are looking forward to!