let's go giants!

pink skeletons

matching pink (glow in the dark) skeleton pj's courtesy of the linden family! the girls are loving it up. we have gone into the bathroom and turned out the lights at least 25 times to check out the glow in the dark feature. have i mentioned that dottie is pumped up for halloween?

pumpkin carving...

getting ready for the big day. dottie is over the top excited for halloween this year! as you can see from the picture, esther is too... :-)

rocco!

last week, we were thrilled to have marie and rocco come for a visit! they brought a lovely lunch and the babes just chilled (esther actually slept through the whole affair until we took the pictures!). rocco is over the top adorable at 4.5 months! marie's daughter siena is just 2 weeks older than dottie so it is really cool having our second kids fairly close in age too. the last silly picture is of dottie and siena at about 2 months old...




rocco (4.5 months) and esther (3 weeks)


dottie (1.5 months) and siena (2 months)

esther's first smile!

i wasn't sure it is was gas or the real deal at first but then she did it about 5 times in a row. of course milo has to put his 2 cents in too!

boo!

dottie got a good scare at the corn maze...

so far, so good

many people have been asking how we are doing with 2 so far...

esther has actually been sleeping like a champ. i should honestly knock on some wood right now i think. she usually goes to sleep when we go to sleep at around 11:00/11:30 and wakes up once anywhere from 4:30-5:30 and goes back down again until 7:45/8:00 when dottie wakes up. her napping has been pretty good during the day thought i must say that i am looking forward to a predictable schedule and an earlier bedtime (which will happen around 6 weeks i think). for now i can't complain! we are loving have a tiny one around the house again and i am LOVING not being pregnant anymore!

so far dottie is loving being a big sister and helps out in many ways with esther. when she starts crying in her swing, dottie will go over and rock it and then suggest a diaper change, milk, or bring her a toy or a binkie. when she wakes up, dottie exclaims, "momma, her eyes are open!". when it's time for bed, dottie gives us each a hug and a kiss on the lips and goes over to esther and gives her a hug and a kiss on the top of her head. the main issue we have had is that she is VERY eager for mom's attention and wants me to do lots for her instead of chuck. understandable for sure but a little draining at times...

sadly, chuck went back to work this week on monday. we thoroughly enjoyed chuck's 2 week paternity leave and things are definitely a little more complicated around here without a second adult to help out. i must admit it is helpful that dottie is at her little daycare 3 days a week to help with the transition.

in about 2 weeks, chuck and dottie will be heading to mexico to attend james (chuck's cousin) and ali's wedding that they are both in and i will be staying home with esther. it should be interesting on both ends i think. after they return, we are all heading to chicago to attend claire (my cousin) and scott's wedding. we are starting to gear up for both events!

stubborn

chuck and i have been trying to figure out where dottie's stubbornness comes from. any guesses? :-)
to demonstrate just how stubborn she is, recently before one of our evening walks with milo, i gave her a red long-sleeved shirt to put on because it was getting a little chilly. she insisted on on wearing a pink shirt so in order to get out the door without any major breakdowns, i grabbed her new hot pink "big sister" t-shirt. well, we didn't avoid a breakdown at all. in fact, she insisted that it wasn't pink and had to wear a pink one. at that point, we laid down the law and said, "fine, you can wear one of these shirts or no shirt at all". as you can see from the picture, she went with the latter option. we got many smiles as we walked up the hill with our shirtless daughter on a chilly SF evening. finally chuck swindled her into putting her shirt on. oy! almost 3 and VERY stubborn!

pumpkin patch!

we drove down to half moon bay last friday to avoid the weekend pumpkin patch crowds. the one we ended up at was small but did the job for sure, corn maze, tractors, ghosts, and all. dottie is very into halloween in general right now so she was in heaven!

it's hard to see esther but she is hiding in my moby wrap on my belly...

to see more pictures at the pumpkin patch, click HERE

2 week appointment

last week esther had her 2 week appointment and for the sake of recording things, i thought i would enter her info.

weight: 7 lbs. 12 oz (was born 7 lbs 4 oz, weight went down to 6 lbs. 14 oz. and now it's back up again!)
length: 21"
head: 36.6 cm

stripes

penny, chuck, and esther all decided to wear stripes the other day...
(and penny, jason, wyatt, and malcolm also brought us a yummy dinner of steak frites!!!!!!)

playdate with lucy and nola

this past weekend, a couple of mothers of dottie's buddies offered to take dottie off of our hands for a bit. it was a lovely offer but we ended up joining them to do some catching up because we hadn't seen them in so long. nola and lucy were dottie's favorite's at her little daycare and sadly this past september, both of them left to go to preschool because they are a touch older than dottie. dottie was thrilled to see them and introduce them to her little sister esther and then proceeded to of course show them pinkalicious and run around with them for hours. the girls also had such sweet little conversations with each other as you can almost see through looking at the pictures...

esther...

most of what esther does as a newborn is eat, sleep, burp, and poop. while sleeping, she usually has a cute little pose as she is demonstrating in this picture...

the garden

when chuck's parents were visiting last week, chuck's mom offered to help us clean up our yard behind our house. it had gotten a little out of hand because of negligence on our part (and perfect sunny and damp conditions for weeds) so it was a very welcome offer. chuck and cam (and after her nap, our little gardener dottie) spent many hours weeding and clearing together followed by a visit to sloat garden center later in the week for new plants and ground cover, and many more hours put in by chuck. the result has been amazing! i'll post pictures when it's all done.

pinkalicious

pink, pink, pink is what it is all about lately around here! not only did we have another girl, dottie has just gone pink crazy!!! i honestly didn't think it would ever happen. since dottie was born, we haver surrounded her with loads of red so i really thought that perhaps she would go that route when asked about favorite colors but pink has won. it could have something to do with her latest favorite book series,PINKALICIOUS. in the past several weeks, we have made pinkalicious cupcakes twice, dottie has had her share of pink lemonade on special occasions, and dottie has insisted on wearing pink almost every day. i am wondering how long this pink obsession will last...

these pictures are of dottie with her grandparents baking pinkalicious cupcakes

dottie the mama

dottie has done a fair amount observing while we care for esther as of late. the other day i walked into the living room and she was "feeding" her baby, parrot, with my breastfeeding pillow, shirt up and all.

time for our diapers.com order to arrive

we were totally out of newborn diapers yesterday and chuck made do with what we had at the house (dottie's old size 4 diapers) ...

it's a major award!

dottie earned her green ribbon in swim class today for "Swimming six feet in a horizontal body position, using paddling arms and proper breath control" we're proud of dot, and as you can see, she was pretty proud of herself!

a trip to the dr.

esther had her first pediatrician visit today. if you can't tell by the fact that we spent the whole time taking portraits, all is well with esther

click HERE for the full set

some friends swing by

click here for the full set.



click here for the full set.

coming home

esther and mom were anxious to get home. after some more fun at the hospital and getting introduced to the family, she packed her stuff and headed home

click here for the full set.



click here for the full set.

esther's new friends

since she was only in the hospital for less than 2 days, esther only had a chance for a few visitors and a quick checkup

click here for the full set.



click here for the full set.

esther meets her family

becoming a big sister is a pretty big event. dottie has been in training for months, signing songs, reading books, playing with dolls, and generally getting ready for the new role. she took it in stride and was gentle and sweet with her new sister. as you can see, the grandparents were pretty ecstatic as well

click here for the full set.



click here for the full set.

esther!

Meet Esther Mary Murphy Mortimore!

Unlike her big sister Dottie she came quick, arriving at 2:21 am on 10.1.10, less then 3 hours after we checked into the hospital. 7lbs 4oz, and 20 5/8" of cute.

click here for the full set.



click here for the full set.

meet esther

By all measures, Mara is a remarkable woman. She proved that again this morning when, despite the fact that all the medical staff and charts were betting on a c-section, she quickly pushed our beautiful baby Esther into the world. Watching a birth is a humbling experience, yet Mara somehow made it look easy. Here is mom and baby a mere 10 minutes into Esther's young life.




So please help me congratulate Mara, and welcome Esther. Mara...my only goal is to raise our daughters to be as strong and wonderful as you. Esther, may you inherit your older sister Dottie's sweet and thoughtful disposition, and your mother's unequivocally positive energy. I love you all.