Happy 3rd birthday, Amelia!

.My big girl turns 3.

My mom has come into town for Amelia's birthday and we're having such a good time that I don't want to take too much time away from it to write all of the details of Amelia's birthday down right now. However, I do have time to upload some photos of the big day with you guys {I'll make a right proper post with details later this week after things get back to "normal"}....

.Her "big" present...a new playhouse {from PBK in case you need one for yourself}.

.Cheyenne, my mom, & I all blew up all 90 balloons during naptime then Cheyenne built this arch with a needle & thread. Clearly he needs a special gift this fathers day for being the best dad in the world!.

.Amelia & her Papa {sorry about this being sideways. Blogger switched up it's formatting a while ago and I can't for the life of me figure out how to rotate photos in it}.

.Grammy & the birthday girl.

.Auntie Meegan taking some time for baby lovin'.

.Amelia & her best friend Nora.

.Abigail holding Nora's baby brother, Henry.

/Amelia, Eulen, & Nora all up to some kind of mischief or another.

.David showing off his cake slice {he's already put in a request to have the same thing for his birthday.....in November}.

.Big girl birthdays can really tucker out little girls.

.Sisters.

Here's a video I took the other day. It may be a bit long/boring for anyone that isn't a grandparent {although, grandparents please enjoy}.

Alice at 5 months

.5 months old.

As of today Alice Hazel is five months old! Woo hoo! Here's is her monthly photo...

Pretty cute if I do say so myself. Normally I put her monthly stats right here, however, she didn't have a pediatrician appointment this month {she does next month} so I don't have up to date height/weight info. And since I just posted an update with her current happenings {rolling over from tummy to each side, the sleep sitch, etc} it seems a bit redundant to repost.

Her growth in pictures thus far....

And in case you were wondering, for every one photo that I get I have a dozen {or more} that don't make the cut. Here are some outtakes from this today's photo "session"...

.It's 32 degrees but summer is on my mind.

We are intending to do some traveling this spring to visit family {Missouri & Nevada} and both trips will involve some swimming action for the littles.
As I was making my checklists for packing it occurred to me that new swimsuits would need to be purchased for the 2013 season. YAY! As you know I pretty much love shopping for little lady swimwear each spring/summer so the fact that I get to do it a little earlier this year is just all the better.
As always I'm going with Janie & Jack for the suits and most of the accessories. Amelia has had a suit from them every year and I love how well they hold up even though she's super hard on them. I also like that they are so so cute without being at all too mature {toddlers in sluttish swimsuits make me cringe on so many levels}.
I had my eye on the 2nd suit listed here for a while but just today the one listed on top came out and I have to say I'm torn. Do I go retro-sophisticated or frilly-girly. Usually the idea of overly frilly things makes the feminist in me bristle but that aqua color and those ruffles paired with a surprise pop of sunshine yellow on the sandals might just be a bit to much adorable temptation for me to resist {and this year it'll be double the cute with matching big & little sisters}. Your thoughts?

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

.Congratulations Dave & Amy {again}.

Our good friends Dave & Amy had their baby! I of course forgot to post this when it happened but a congrats goes out to them nonetheless.

Gabrielle Kanani Peterson {her middle name means "beautiful" in Hawaiian and is an homage to the place she was born} was born on January 5th and was almost the EXACT same size as her "cousin" Amelia at birth {Gabrielle was just 2 ounces larger and a half inch shorter"}. Everyone is happy and healthy and getting along quite well.

They'll be up here for a visit this summer and we can't wait to see all three of our little girls together!

.Sleep.

It's the first question everyone asks when you have a baby "how ya sleepin'?". My answer is a complicated one.
We co-sleep. Yes like in bed with me co-sleep. We do in fact have an Arms Reach Co-Sleeper {which I highly recommend} but after weeks of both of us waking up fully every 2 hours so that she can nurse I gave up out of pure exhaustion and brought her into bed with me so that I can side-nurse her and suddenly every person in our house was getting plenty of sleep. Of course now she refuses to move back to her co-sleeper and the other people that share the bed {husband & dog} are so very over the nightly group party.
The thing is, I had always expected the sleeping issue to be the same as it was with Amelia. Not because they are sisters and therefore the same, but because I naively thought "a baby is a baby is a baby". Not even close. Alice's temperament is so totally different from her sisters and what works for one absolutely does not work for the other, not just with sleep but since it's the subject of this post it's the example I'm using. Amelia is my headstrong independent bull-headed firecracker who is more than happy to do something simply because you think she can't. Go down the big slide? Sure. Eat that spicy dish? Hell yes. Sleep by yourself? Not only yes, but bring on the darkened me-time!
Alice on the other hand is all softness and her only goals in life are to make you smile and a good cuddle. Being alone, even in a bassinet 8 inches from my own head is not something to overcome {as it was with Amelia} but pure lonely heartbreak. So of course what worked for the first child just seems cruel with this one. Plus it doesn't work.
So I have gone back and am re-reading Elizabeth Pantely's "No-Cry Sleep Solutions" book. It's the same one I read when Amelia was being "sleep trained" and it worked for our family. Reading it through the first time I skipped over things areas that didn't apply to us, this time I'm doing the same only they're the opposite parts. A few things have really rang true when reading through again especially the section on purposely holding back because I as a mother am not totally ready. While it's true that I would love to sleep deeply again {I only fall into the lightest of sleeps to make sure she's always safe} or to sleep on my stomach, or spread out, or even lay next to my husband again - I'm just as much sad at the idea of losing that time with her.
There is of course the bonding that you get every time you nurse your baby but for me that is taken a step further in those quiet hours in the middle of the night when it's just the two of us while the rest house sleeps. I'm not rushed or splitting my attention between a million things, it's slow and peaceful; the only quiet reflecting time that I get to just savor her babyness most days. They grow so so fast, something I didn't fully appreciate last time. She's our last baby and everything she does, every minute with her feels like a swan song. And so, I snuggle in with her each night knowing that it's one less night of holding a baby to me and I don't feel any great urge to rush that more than time already naturally does.
There will be a whole lifetime of her sleeping on her own, for now we each need this - for overlapping reasons.
So, I'm taking it slow. Much more so than I did with Amelia and everyone {Cheyenne, Amelia, Alice, the dog, my own nagging insides} will just need to forgive me and let me do it my way.

.The {belated} Christmas Post.

Christmas this year was so much fun! It was the first year that Amelia was old enough to really get into the excitement of it all and I think it'll be a good building block year for reference next year {"remember last year when Santa came?"}. I didn't get nearly enough photos, in fact I didn't take a single one on Christmas day {just these few from the night before} and the video we shot was lacking to say the least {I'm still editing it} - but there was just so much going on: so much to unwrap, cook, eat, family to enjoy and friends to entertain that photographic documentation fell by the wayside. Le sigh.
For those wondering, Santa brought Amelia an easel & smock, paints & brushes, Duplo Legos,  a giant amount of crayons & coloring books, and other artsy things that I am currently forgetting. Alice got a play table thingy and a bunch of baby toys & books. The of course there were the 3 million gifts from Mommy & Daddy, grandparents, great-grandparents, godparents, & friends. Basically they made out like bandits and our playroom/family is totally bursting at the seams....as it should be I suppose.

.Long time gone.

Outside of the whole "had a baby" excuse I really have no solid reason for my lengthy absences from this blog. I will say that it feels weird every single day that I don't write something on here; updating this was such a common part of my weekly routine for about 3 years and now I go *huge* spans of time without a single post.
The thing is I dwell on it "oh my god I haven't updated the blog in soooooo long. I need to write like 10 updates and make an excuse, etc etc" and then it just seems a bit overwhelming so I do something else entirely. Do you get like that with things? I certainly do {blog, dishes, laundry} and then before you know it you're stuck with a mountain. Eesh.
So how have things been? Good, quite good. We have a routine and things are {mostly} smooth sailing these days at Casa de Clark.
Amelia is turning 3 in just 13 days {holy sh*t} and that just boggles my mind. Wasn't I JUST writting my first post? Wasn't I JUST in the hospital? Didn't she JUST learn to walk? How is she almost 3??? We have a big rainbow themed birthday party here at home and my mom is coming to town {birthdays are a big deal and wont be missed just because she moved away}. I think this is our last year of the birthday parties held at this house as the guest list for this year will be pushing it space-wise and next year will be even longer. Don't think I haven't already started scouting locations for next years party!
Also on the subject of Amelia updates, homegirl is basically potty trained at this point. We're still working on nap/night time and trips to the store but when we're home she's in big girl underwear full time and rocks the potty chair scene.
Alice is also growing at ridiculous speeds. She can roll over in both directions, hold herself up in a sitting position for a {short} bit, and is a big healthy happy girl. You would never guess to look at her that she was a full pound smaller than the next smallest baby on the maternity floor and needed an IV to keep her stable. For now she's still exclusively breastfed but I think in the next week or two we're going to venture in to solid foods. Generally you're supposed to wait until 6 months old but our pediatrician gave us the go ahead since Little Sister has such a voracious appetite. I'm thinking the first meal will be avocado but we'll see.
As for Cheyenne and I, we're great, a bit exhausted... but great.