Back at work!

 I have been back at work now for three weeks but only at work two full weeks due to the Holiday. It has been fairly easy to slide back into work. It's amazing how quickly if can all come back to you and they were waiting for me and put me right to work. I got over 20 claim files assigned to me in 2 weeks. 

It has even a challenge to get the kids out the door in the mornings but has gotten easier. Olivia blessed me the first week of going back to work sleeping through the night until between 6 and 6:30 four out of the five days. She hadn't done that since two months. She began sleeping much better and now usually just gets up once a night usually in the early morning around 5:00 AM. I lay out the kids clothes now for the week all organized. I do the kids laundry on Saturday and ours on Sunday and usually a kids load during the week. Thank God we have a house keeper too who comes every other week.

I have to be at work by 8:30 and I usually am up at 7:00 at the latest. I get dressed and ready myself while Olivia sleeps or plays on my bed. Then I get her dressed and Brandon dressed and we go downstairs. Brandon watches one 20 minute show and eats breakfast. I make coffee and my breakfast and then eat it while nursing Olivia and then we are off usually by 8:10. I always pack my lunch the night before and have everything in the car ready to go. 

I pump in the morning at work and in the afternoon and spend my hour lunch break feeding and playing with Olivia at her daycare. I am so lucky because her daycare is so close to my work. It's really hard to leave Olivia and I miss her a lot . I feel like she is such a part of me. But she seems to be sdjusting well and is happy when I pick her up. The first week with the bottle was rough but now she is taking about 3 ounces twice a day and often has oatmeal there.

It has been a bit of an adjustment too for Brandon who was not used to sharing his school with his baby sister and who was used to shorter days when I was not at work but he is adjusting as well. It helped that I took mon and tues of Christmas week off and only had to with twice that week. It also helps that my mom is watching both of them on Thursdays and just Olivia on Fridays. Makes for a much shorter week for them and Olivia gets two days of cuddling and being held.

Brandon is three!

I can't believe my little boy is three now.  On his actual birthday, Sean took the day off from work.  He got to open up his presents from us first thing in the morning and was super excited to get a My Little Pony pack from us and a big fire truck.  He got some birthday money from his great grandmas and his great grandpa and we decided to let him go to Toys R Us and pick out something from the store with his money.  He picked out a Power Ranger Bike with training wheels and was excited about his big boy bike.  It was a little big on him but he rode it like a champ!  I baked him cupcakes (his request) and he blew out the candles and we sang Happy Birthday to him. 

Brandon's birthday cupcakes all lit

The birthday boy!

New bike!

Riding his new bike in the neighborhood

Brandon had his birthday party the following Saturday, December 7th.  He invited two of his good friends from school, Gavin and Andrew and Logan.  My parents and Sean's parents were unable to come up as planned due to a crazy 8 inch snow storm that they got in Eugen and Corvallis the day before.  But everyone else-the Mowerys, Rosie and Thomas, Ben, and Brendan were able to come.  We had mimosas for the adults and sparkling cider for the kids.  We made the theme a fire truck theme as Brandon loves fire trucks.  I also made ice cream cupcakes (an idea I got from Pinterest).  The kids got to whack on a fire truck pinata.  We had fire truck balloons and party favors.  The kids had a lot of fun playing together and Brandon loved opening his presents.  It was a very fun birthday.

So excited for his party

Logan and Brandon enjoying some snacks

Hitting the pinata

Yummy candy

Brandon's friend Andrew

Logan hitting the pinata

Andrew

Pinterest idea-Icecream cup cakes

So yummy looking!

Lighting the candles-one extra one to grow on

Blowing out the candles

Yum-we love cupcakes

Dinosaur!

Opening up presents while baby sister looks on

Such a yummy cone

Olivia is five months old!

I some how missed doing a blog post about when Olivia turned four months old.  I write this post, two days before I go back to work and on the eve of Brandon's third birthday party.  Olivia has changed so much in the past two months.  She is becoming much more of a person.  She loves to be held, loves attention, loves to be talked to.  She loves watching her big brother play and interact with her.  She loves being able to see what is going on with the rest of the family. 

4 months old!

Digging the hoodie!

Big hug from Brandon in their Duck gear

Touchdown!

 I began jogging with Olivia in my jogging stroller and she loves going on jogs with me.  It relaxes her and she enjoys looking around and sometimes even takes a nap.  Speaking of sleep, Olivia has not been a great sleeper like her brother.  She is extremely alert and aware of her surroundings.  This makes taking naps on the go like Brandon did extremely hard.  She also loves to be held during her naps which makes me getting anything done very hard and sometimes wakes up when we put her down.  She typically takes a 45 minute to one hour nap about two hours after she gets up and then usually a quick nap in the early afternoon around noonish usually for like 30 minutes to an hour.  Then she usually takes a nap from around 2-3 that is sometimes longer than an hour.  Bed time feeding begins around 7:45-8:00 and she is in her crib by 8:30.  We moved Olivia into her own room and her own crib at 4.5 months too.  After a few rough nights she appears to have gotten used to it and likes the space of her crib.  We still swaddle her with one arm to help her sleep longer.  Olivia usually gets up twice a night usually around 12:30-2:30 and then between 4 and 5.  I am hoping that she will begin to sleep longer.

Such a cute hat

All bundled up on a nap

 At her 4 month appointment Olivia was 14.5 lbs and 25.5 inches.  She was 70 percentile in weight and 90th in height.  Olivia at 5 months was 15 lbs and her height was not measured. She generally eats between 5-6 times a day.  This month was a big struggle to get Olivia to take a bottle.  She hates all things plastic and artificial including pacifers and does not appear to be a thumb sucker like Brandon.  Due to Olivia not taking the bottle well and me going back to work her pedetrician recommended me starting solids a bit earlier.  She has oatmeal cereal once a day mixed with breast milk and a fruit or veggies and has been eating well.  She likes to be a part of us while we eat dinner. 

First food and eating her bib

Yum oatmeal!

In the beginning of November we traveled to California and visited my Aunt Lael and my sisters Rachel and Tory in the Bay Area.  Olivia was great on the airplane but not so great in sleeping in new environments despite having her pack n play that she had been sleeping in.  We stayed at my Aunt Lael's for two nights and then with my sister Tory for one night.  The weather was awesome while we were there and it was really nice to visit them.  We also traveled to Eugene for Thanksgiving with Sean's side of the family.  Unfortunately Olivia came down with a fever the day before and it just got higher while we were in Eugene and she was very sick both nights and very hard to sleep with. We all had to sleep in one room too which made it challenging with a sick baby who refused to sleep any where but on us.  But we powered through it and got home and it took several days but we got Olivia back on her normal sleep schedule once again.  Brandon at this age had no problems sleeping any where and was sleeping 10 hours a night by this age without waking up.

Auntie Tory and Olivia

Olivia and my cousin Lauren

Thanksgiving 2013

Not feeling well and being held by Daddy

Olivia and her cousin Bianca who is three months younger than her

 Olivia learned how to roll over from her back to her belly right at four months.  She learned how to because she loves looking at her toys on her play mat and grabbing at them and playing with them.  She loves her play mat and can play under it entertained for 20-30 minutes.  She also loves her jumperoo and her exersaucer as she loves standing up and looking around.  She can sit almost with her hands down and my guess is she will be mastering that by the end of this month.  I have to go back to work in 2 days.  It has been so much fun being on maternity leave with Olivia all this time.  I am so sad to have to go back to work.  My mom is coming though and watching her twice a week so she only has to go to daycare three times a week. She is very social and I think she will like the excitement going on at school.

Such a cutie in her Christmas gear

Big hug from big brother

All dressed up in her reindeer dress

Brandon in his reindeer sweater and Olivia in her reindeer dress

What a sweet hug

Olivia and Addie at Brandon's birthday party

Future best friends?

So much fun playing under her play mat at 4.5 months

Exersaucer fun!

Halloween 2013

Brandon was so excited for Halloween this year.  He really "got" the concept of trick or treating, wearing costumes, decorating the house with Halloween decorations, and carving pumpkins.  He also loved to ride his bike around our neighborhood and look at all of the other houses' elaborate Halloween decorations.  Our neighborhood tends to go all out for the various holidays in terms of decorations.  The neighbor next door had a large witch on her door that Brandon was both fascinated with and scared of.  After a long deliberation, Brandon picked out his costume, a fire fighter chief which I ordered on Amazon.  Brandon also picked out Olivia's costume, a lady bug, at Costco. 

Brandon the fire fighter chief

All dressed up before his school's Halloween party

Our little lady bug

Carving pumpkins

Brandon did not like scooping out the pumpkin guts he thought it was icky

Helping to carve the pumpkin

Earlier in the month, we went to Lee Farms with the Mowery family and had a blast.  Brandon got to go with his class at preschool back to Lee Farms on a field trip.  He had so much fun and according to his teacher him and his good pal Andrew at school held hands and had a ton of fun together.  They got to pick out a pumpkin, go down a slide, and go on a tractor ride.  It was also Brandon's first ride on a school bus, which he loved.  

Brandon's school had a all school Halloween Party on the Friday night before Halloween.  The whole family went and it was a lot of fun meeting the other parents of the kids that Brandon goes to school with.  They had huge Costco hot dogs for dinner (yummy), a cupcake freeze dance, face painting, and a magician.  Brandon loved the magic show and sat there and watched it enthralled for 45 minutes with his good pal Gavin.  Olivia tolerated the party well and took a cat nap during it. 

Brandon in front of his school's pumpkin just before the party

Brandon and his good friend Gavin watching the Magic Show

Sweet Olivia at the Halloween Party

 We had a Halloween/Football party the Saturday night before Halloween.  He had Brooke, Taylor, and their kiddos, Beth, Rosie, and Thomas over and had pizza, snacks, and drinks while we first watched the Ducks play UCLA (they won!) and then the Beavers played Stanford (they unfortunately lost).  We were a mixture of Ducks and Beavers fans so it was fun.  We were going to pumpkin carve too but people got a little lazy and the Beaver game went right down to the wire and was super exciting to watch so we skipped that.  It was really nice getting together with all of our friends. 

All dressed up in her pink Oregon duck gear

Playing with her feet again!  She loves them

The Halloween festivities continued that week when I took Brandon and Olivia to the Children's Museum two days before Halloween where they were having "A Baby's First Halloween" festivity.  The kiddos got to wear their costumes and got to go on stage and show their costumes off for a costume contest.  Olivia also got to wear her costume again the day before Halloween at our New Mom's Group Halloween Party.  I got several cute pictures of Olivia in a pumpkin and with Brooke's baby girl Addie.  We got to eat yummy food that everyone brought and have fun with our babies.  Also several of the moms in the group and I went on a long walk afterwards around the YMCA. 

Olivia and I at the Children's Museum

Little lady bug at the Children's Museum

We got a smile!

And another one!

In the pumpkin at the New Mom's group Halloween party

Little pumpkin

Then she tried to eat the pumpkin

Brooke and I with the girls

Addie and Olivia-both girls were about 3 1/2 months old

On actual Halloween, Brandon had school and his class had a Halloween party.  They went trick or treating around local businesses in their costumes.  He came home and we had dinner and then from about 6:00-7:00 we had about 400 Halloween trick or treaters come to our house.  I had over 500 pieces of candy and it was gone in less than an hour.  Our neighborhood though is the kind of neighborhood that people bus their kids to to get candy.  Sean took Brandon out to begin trick or treating while I continued handing out the rest of the candy and then Olivia and I met up with him.  Brandon did not last that long trick or treating but was excited to end the night by walking over to our good friend Rosie and Thomas' house.  All in all, it was a very fun Halloween!

Olivia's first Halloween

Sweet girl on Halloween before costume time

First Halloween with a pumpkin

All bundled up for trick-or-treating

Brandon and Olivia while trick or treating

My little trick or treaters

Going up to trick or rreat

Trick or treating is fun when you start to eat candy!

Little lady bug

Getting tired towards the end of the night

Daddy and Olivia at Thomas and Rosie's house

Silly Dixie!