August 2010-1st Half

Question: Anyone else feel dumb as they're trying to figure out how to start a new blog post? I always sit here for like 10 minutes running over different 'opening lines' in my head, trying to make them sound cool, but also trying to not make it obvious that I thought too hard about it. I wish I was more creative, then maybe it wouldn't be so darn hard....

Life's been good the past couple weeks adjusting to life with the new baby. Justin stayed home the first week after we came home from the hospital. He was suprisingly helpful around the kitchen (although he didn't cook much), claiming that 'his sink' was to never have a dirty dish in it. My mom came after that, and then his mom came.
Sadly, my days of being pampered are over. I was telling Justin that having someone come to help you can in some ways be anti-helpful. (Not that I don't appreciate it!). Hear me out: You go from taking care of one (or two, etc) kids, and also doing the laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc. You're used to it all, got it all figured out. Then along comes another kid. Now instead of having to adjust to having 2 kids (or 3, etc) and cleaning and cooking, your mom comes into town and she takes care of the older one, and the cleaning and the cooking, etc., leaving you to just take care of the one innocent, not-troublemaker little baby and lounge around and read/sleep all day. Then she leaves, and it's BAM! right in your face two-kids-and-all-that-other-crap.

I guess it's good that newborns sleep. Like all day.

Anyways, I promise my list of stuff is shorter than it was for the last post:
*Amaia's obsessed with the "5 Little Monkeys" song. Just ask her what the doctor said and you'll get an excited "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" with accompanying hand motions.
*So we finally gave Amaia her busy book, but since we gave it to her as a present, she calls it the present book. And the swimming suit she got for her birthday is a 'present swimming suit', etc.
*So in June (I think) I posted a picture of this wire photo display thing we have in Amaia's room. Well on the side closest to her bed I hung a Pass Along card with a picture of Jesus coming out of the tomb (I think) on it. Anyways...every time we say prayers, we'll both say 'amen'. Instead of Amaia repeating it (like she used to), she'll point to the picture and say "Jesus up there...Amen!"
*She constantly asks to "watch dhoom" (Dhoom 2-a bollywood film that's totally awesome and you should go watch it sometime. Netflixers might be able to find it through the instant view thinger still)
*Everytime I change Solia's poopy diaper, she asks to look inside to see her poo. I mean really? Come on, now Amaia, that's gross :)
*Solia winks all the time (I'm sure not on purpose) and it's always with her left eye.
*Amaia finally pronounces Solia's name better. Instead of So-lee-uh (which is how's it's supposed to be) she says So-wee-uh. It's super cute.
*Did I mention how much Amaia adores her little sister??? I was scared she would be rough with her (she went through a very short hitting phase a few weeks before the baby was born) but only one time have I had to tell her to not hit/squish her, and ever since then she hasn't. She's constantly looking for her and has to 'see Solia', and she gives her kisses all the time. Like all the time.
*Solia is otherwise uneventful, of course. She sleeps all the time, which is going to come bite me in the butt here in a few weeks when she won't sleep at night. She actually spits up, which is quite a change from Amaia, who never spit up or even burped after nursing, but it's not like spit-up-every-where-I-need-a-new-shirt-now like some babies do.

Those of you who are my friends on Facebook have probably seen these pictures before. If not I'll explain: Justin and I started a 365 Photo project with the girls. (Hmm....did I explain this in the last post...? Oh well). Every day for the next year (starting the day Solia was born) we're going to (try) to take a picture of the two girls together. These sort of projects are supposed to help you become more creative photographers, because after a couple months you've run out of ideas and have to come up with more creative things to do picture wise. Because who wants to see 300 pictures of them just sitting next to each other?? So this first collage is all 'official' 365 pictures from the first two weeks of August:

Some shots of Solia alone (and fear not-I actually took more pictures of her alone than of Amaia alone. I refuse to let her be that second child who never had any cute pictures of jsut her when she was a kid!):

Here are more pictures of the girls together. Some of them were taken at the same time as the 'official' 365 pictures, but didn't make the cut as the cutest one of the bunch. Others are just random pictures of the two of them:


Just Amaia:

Stay tuned: hopefully I'll get the next post up in a decent amount of time!

**I edited the 'Solia' post to include a short list of things about Solia from the first couple days of life. Head back to that post and check it out-the new stuff is in RED**