Lianna is 3!!  Sometimes the days seem long, but all of a sudden my little girl is a "big girl"!  She helped with the sprinkles - can you guess which one was her favorite?  She was pretty disappointed when the bottle was empty.



...playing with her new toy from Grandma :)  Several months ago Lianna declared she was going to have a pink birthday, so we had pink balloons, streamers, cupcakes, etc.  Even Grandma got the memo to wear pink!



Miriam and Great-Grandma Peters, the sweetest lady!  I hope to be like her when I'm 93 - still living on her own, driving, and telling funny stories.



Before...



After!



Happy Easter!  We really need to get to a photographer...how do they get the kids looking the same way at the same time?!



We did an egg hunt with Lianna and some of the eggs had stick-on earrings in them.  She thought it was pretty cool!  Sigh...she's growing up!

Miriam looks pretty similar to Lianna at this age.  It's amazing how fast these past 2 months have flown!

Is there such a thing as too much pink??


Happy girl :)


My parents came for Miriam's dedication on the 2nd.  Keith's family was here too, but we didn't get a picture with all of them!


Ghetto baby :)


What will they think of next to put me in?



Hmmm....


Saturday morning cuddles :)


Miriam happy at play

Well, this past month has been a blur!  Here's the highlights (that I can remember):

Miriam's arrival was just as amazing as Lianna's.  My sister drove in Saturday the 12th after dinner...just in time!  That night, I woke up at 2am with contractions about 3 minutes apart.  We went straight to the hospital, following Dr's orders since Lianna was born half an hour after we got to the hospital.  Although Lianna's birth was a bit intense, it was nice not to have to be monitored and checked ever 20 minutes.  What woman really wants monitors belted around her belly when it is already suffering painful contractions?  Thankfully, they let me take a bath and walk around for a bit unmonitored.  The delivery was pretty similar to Lianna's - after my water broke, I was ready to push, but my Dr. wasn't there yet!  She showed up just in time to catch Miriam - my nurse probably should have called her a little sooner.  It was all pretty smooth and uneventful, thankfully!  Keith was GREAT!

My parents came for a week. It was so nice not having to cook or do dishes.  I healed pretty well the week they were here.  Courtney stayed another 3 weeks after my parents (except for her excursions to New York City & Kansas City).  She helped me practice being a mom of two but giving me breaks by doting on Lianna, cooking, & cleaning.  She was my extra set of hands for our first few trips out.

This past month has been full of adjustments.  I'm realizing once again how amazing my husband is.  I'm sure he has always been this helpful and understanding, but I've noticed it a TON more since I've had to surrender control of a lot more details in to focus on caring for an infant and preschooler.  Lianna loves her little sister, but has had her own ways of adjusting.  Sometimes she'll make the same crying sound Miriam does, but what else should we expect?  She's experiencing that her parents' attention is now divided...and there's nothing she can do about it.  We had a few dark days of parenting 2 kids, but the last few have been great and lots of fun again.  Does it really matter if Lianna wears her favorite shirt a few days in a row?  It makes our mornings SO much nicer when she doesn't put up a fight to get dressed.

Miriam was pretty reluctant to be "routinized."  I was pretty bummed - I thought I had a colicky baby, then just a fussy one, and I had no idea what to do with her.  I thought it would be a breeze the second time around, but Miriam is just different from Lianna as an infant.  After nursing every 2 hours during the day and what seemed like all night long for 4 weeks, it was time to get tough.  After one very hard day, I'm feeling sane again.  Miriam is sleeping in her own bassinet for long stretches at night and having naps during the day.  She's eating every 3 hours...Baby Wise is so helpful!  I didn't mind nursing so much the first 2 weeks - someone told me that 'you can't nurse too much those first two weeks' and since I had milk supply issues with Lianna, I really wanted to make sure my milk supply was well established.  I accomplished my goal!  While Lianna took 3 weeks to regain her birth weight, Miriam gained her birth weight plus 6 oz by her 2 week checkup!  After Courtney left, though, I just didn't have the strength or time to nurse every 2 hours.  I think I was just too embarrassed to let Miriam scream longer than 5 minutes with Court here.  Needless to say, last night Miriam slept from 11:45 to 5:15 and then from 6 to 7:30.  Aaahhh.  Sleep!  How crazy to think that I feel rested with 5 and a half hours of uninterrupted sleep and then an hour an a half more.

I'll load pictures soon!  Half the time she reminds me of Lianna's pictures, but I'm noticing her own characteristics as well.  She has a few more of my features, which is really fun.  I've always said that Lianna could be Keith's much younger sister - all of her features come from him.

We're so thankful for these girls and how they bless our lives.  This parenting thing certainly reminds us to walk by faith each day.