66.67% There....

Elizabeth just hit 8 months old & she's doing great.  She's still as easy-going as ever--the only thing that's changing is her hair color.  She's lost a good amount of her original locks & the ones that have stayed now have long blonde roots (like the inverse of your average LA trophy wife).  It's wild to look back over pictures where her hair was so much darker--& fuller, the new blonde stuff is both short & sparse.

After some initial trepidation with the solid foods she's getting better at munching them--though unlike her brother's initial preference for soft foods like avocados she's all about the crunchy stuff.  She loves to eat puffs, pancakes, & Kristin's kale or collard baked chips.

However, her current favorite food is Mum-Mum's--though given that they are made in China Kristin's concession might not last long.  As it was the first time around, I'm looking forward to when she can eat chicken nuggets & french fries but it might be awhile because we haven't had any teeth yet.  It took seemingly forever for Jake to get his so she's following his footsteps there.

Speaking of footsteps we are almost/barely/not quite crawling.  Should happen any day now though she's making do because her shimmying & rolling skills are world-class.....

The Big 0 - 4

The little Cubby is not-so-slowly turning into a big kid & on May 19 his odometer flipped 4 years old.  We held his party outside at the picnic shelter at Laurel Hills Park.  With rain in the forecast we were once again anxiously watching the weather until the last minute but it turned out great.  We had plenty of family, friends, & even classmates come out & enjoy the day.

Beverages, pizza, snacks, & cake all courtesy of Costco, (of course).

Elizabeth hanging out with her soul sister Evelyn.

 

Hanging around with cousin Lily.  She & Jake share the same birthday & she turned 5.

Bernard the bear's size advantage is in trouble.....

5, 6, 7 Months!

At her six month check up, Elizabeth was 30th percentile for weight and 50th for length.  Her head was 80th, so she's in good company with her brother.

First solids...not sure

Um, ok, Dad

Ok, brother!

Really?

I'm almost always happy!

6 months -not so in to sitting still

Don't worry - we haven't forgotten that Jake turned 4!!!! Next blog post...

Four Months and early Easter Pics

Elizabeth had a great visit to her pediatrician for her four-month check up. Well, I thought it went well overall; she did not appreciate the shots! She was 14 pounds, 1 ounce (50th percentile), 25.125 inches (75th percentile), and her head, much like her brother's (without all the hydrocephalus worry), is big and in the 80th percentile.

Pop-Pop and Gamma Jan came this past weekend, and we had a lot of fun with an early Easter egg hunt, good meals, and lots of snuggles for baby E.

Some Pictures

Elizabeth turned four months last week, I went back to work a month ago, and it's hard to know where the time is going. In the interest of getting something on the blog before it all leaves my head, here are some quick milestone and recent photos and videos:

Elizabeth's milestones to date:
6 weeks - smiled purposefully (lots of sleep smiles before that)
8 weeks - laughed
11 weeks - rolled over tummy to back (repeated 4 times in a row and only sporadically since then; getting close to back to tummy - if only that darn head didn't weigh her down! :))
4 months - finds her feet - what fun!

A little bit of snow in Raleigh; I think this is it for Winter 2011-12

Our big guy loves his bike!

3 Months Old!

Go devils!! (until next year...)

Feet!

Bear Photos

Here are our cuties with their bears. We'll photograph Elizabeth each month for the first year and every 6 months thereafter, like Jake. As you can see, Elizabeth's bear is quite a bit bigger than Jake's. That seems only fair - given the 7 pound head start she had on him in life. :) Here's to growing!!

Three and a half years old!

One Month!

Two Months!

I've read a fair amount about parents worried about comparing their kids. I think it's inevitable and unavoidable, and I think it's fine - as long as you aren't trying to make one out to be "better" or "worse" than the other. For us, the size comparisons are, not surprisingly, the ones that come up most. And then we also compare how "easy" it is to have a full-term infant vs. a preemie. (Not that I'm saying full-term infants are easy!) I used to think that having a full-term infant first would have made the preemie experience a lot easier. I now fully believe that the opposite is true. With Jake, Jeff and I only had a vague notion of what "normal" was; we didn't really know what all was different. Now that we've had a full-term baby, we fully understand how coming home on six different medicines (all on their own schedules), needing to feed every 3 hours and then be held up for 15 minutes for reflux, going to multiple doctor's appointments in one month, and all the other things we did with Jake were different. And we realize all over again how hard they were and that we all made it through and are so grateful to be where we are now.

Finally, a little headshot of Elizabeth after a bath. She's normally very smiley, but I was mostly trying to capture the hair - it's so curly when it's wet!

Elizabeth Marion Walker

Baby Girl joined us on 11/11/11 at 11:08 am. She was 9 pounds, 2 ounces and 21.5 inches long. 10 fingers and 10 toes! Her middle name - Marion - is a family name, just like Jake's middle name is. "Colorado Grandma" was Jessie Marion, although everyone called her Marion (if they didn't call her Colorado Grandma :)), and sharing a name with such a special person means a lot to Jeff and me. We learned later from my Great Uncle Al that Elizabeth is a family name on the Robinson side. Elizabeth's great-great-great grandmother was Elizabeth, as was her great-great aunt (Uncle Al's and my grandmother Helmling's oldest sister). We always called her Aunt Dee so I'd forgotten her name was Elizabeth. As for a nickname, we haven't given her one besides Pookie (or Pokey as my dad started calling her as her due date came and went). Stay tuned to see if she becomes Liz or Betsy (or Zab or Eli or any of the other names that have been suggested).

Very happy Mom and Baby after delivery.

Snuggle with Dad

Meeting big brother

Wheeled out of the hospital with our "take home baby." Incredible moment for us (even if Elizabeth cried for the whole walk :)).

We are adjusting to life as a family of four, and I'm hoping to chronicle some of our family happenings so that Elizabeth has something of an electronic baby book/blog like Jake does.