Not only does Avery turn two months today, but Zoe turns 1,000 days! I wouldn’t have known the latter if not for the handy counter at the top of the page, but I couldn’t let the milestone pass without a mention. So – here’s hoping the next 1,000 days of Zoe’s life will be just as eventful and joyful – for all of us!

-M

Oh, how she’s grown:

Has it been two months already? It has, and it’s time for a quick update. As mentioned earlier, it seems like Avery has gotten a bit easier/less needy over the past few weeks. (Not sure if Gil would agree, though; he heard lots of crying during his brief visit!) Though she still prefers to be held or bounced, she is now content to hang out on her own (in a bouncy chair, for example) for short stretches of time. In terms of activities, she still doesn’t do that much, but she does coo, blow “raspberries,” and kick her arms and legs when excited. She also gives big smiles, especially when lying on her changing table. She seems to be noticing toys a bit more – she likes hearing the shake of a rattle, and she’s often entertained for 10 or 15 minutes by a plush turtle that plays music. She must like its songs!

She hasn’t had a weigh-in for a few weeks, but I’m sure she’s well over 12 pounds by now. She still eats 6 or 7 times a day, but she has mostly given up her 1 AM feeding – much to my delight! Like Zoe, she’s a pretty good sleeper, and she has started to get a bit more predictable with her naptimes.

I’m sure there will be a lot more to report on next month!

-M

As mentioned below, Zoe has had tons of bonding time with her uncle. Hanging with him can be pretty exhausting. though – below is the scene I came home to after exercising (and leaving Gil and Zoe to play) yesterday!

-M

Most of our family lives far away, but I like to think that Zoe still feels connected to loved ones. She talks about her grandparents and Aunt Sandy (and her dog Coco) all the time, for example, and she’s always been a big fan of Uncle Gil – who lives the furthest away of everyone! Though she hadn’t seen him since last Oct., she bonded with him right away during this trip. Check them out below.

-M

We were talking about friends yesterday afternoon, when the following exchange occurred between me and Zoe.

M: “Zoe, who’s your best friend?”
Z: “My daddy.”
M: “That’s so sweet. Who else is your friend?”
Z: “Baby Sister… She’s the best friend ever!”

-M

It’s a bit of a tradition to go to Wine Country when Gil visits, so the five of us, along with Dan and Jenny, caravanned up to Napa yesterday afternoon. While Avery mostly slept and fussed, the rest of us strolled around, sampled wine and cheese, and enjoyed a warm picnic at our favorite spot (V. Sattui). Afterwards Zoe got a special treat: she stopped with Jenny and her uncles at a beach in Sausalito to run around and fly a kite. From the look on her face on the way home (last picture), she had a blast!

-M

Gil came to visit all the way from Israel yesterday and he came bearing gifts! Check out Zoe’s reaction to her new piece of art from Gil’s girlfriend Liron (Happy Birthday, Liron!)…

Jon Q

With a new baby in the house, there’s always a lot of hugging and cuddling happening. We’ve captured on camera many recent cuddly moments; here are the best of the photos.

-M

Whenever things got tough (i.e. I felt particularly tired or overwhelmed) during those early weeks of Avery’s life, Q always told me to hang in there. Things, he said, would get easier once the baby hit the 3-month mark and we established a nice, new routine. (He remembered the 3-month mark being a significant one with Zoe.) Q’s usually right about these sorts of things, but he was a bit off on timing: things actually started to get somewhat easier a few weeks ago. All of a sudden, Avery became a bit less needy during the day and a bit more predictable in terms of sleeping. (I can count on her for a long afternoon nap around the same time each day, for example.) Also, we recently started putting the girls to bed at night at the same time, around 7:30. Though Avery isn’t down for the night (we get her up to eat at 10, and she wakes up at least once to eat after that), this still gives me and Q a few hours of quiet, alone time – which is much needed!

We still have our crazy, unpredictable times, of course – and I know kids’ schedules/routines can change like the weather – but things seem (dare I say?) manageable right now. And that makes me very happy!

-M

When I was reading old blog entries yesterday, I came across a video of Zoe when she was about Avery’s age. It occurred to me that we haven’t gotten a good video of Avery on that hippo mat yet – so I grabbed the camera. Here’s what I got.

-M

I recently started doing a mom/baby work-out (something I also did with Zoe), and one of the women at today’s class asked if Avery’s personality was similar to my other daughter’s. I responded that Avery, like Zoe as a baby, is pretty mellow – but the question got me thinking about more of the girls’ similarities and differences. I went back to earlier posts to read about Zoe at the almost-two-month stage (like I said below, you really do forget!), and I thought I’d do a little comparison.

-Sleeping: When Zoe was Avery’s age, it was the norm for her to wake up only once in the night to eat. (How lucky were we?!) Avery is on an every-other-night routine: one night she’ll wake up only once to eat, and the next she’ll eat twice. Both babies were good daytime sleepers, though Avery isn’t as likely to fall asleep in her carseat as Zoe was. (A 5-minute-drive with some music, and Zoe would be passed out!)

-Eating: As you probably guessed from their healthy weights, both girls have had no trouble in the eating department. But there are differences: by seven weeks, Zoe was down to eating only 5-6 times a day – and Avery now eats 6-7.

-Crying: I didn’t blog much about Zoe’s crying fits (probably because she didn’t have terribly many), but it feels like Avery cries less. As mentioned before, she never wakes us up in the night with her cries – she pants, squeals or groans instead. And when she cries during the day, she’s almost immediately soothed by a hug from her mom or a bounce on the big exercise ball. (Yes – just like Zoe, she loves being bounced. The big downside: an occasional sore back for me and Q!)

-Smiling: Apparently Zoe was doing tons of smiling at this point. Avery doesn’t always have a smile on her face, but she has a few particularly happy times of the day. (And we’ve noticed that she’s most likely to smile when relaxing on her changing table!)

-Hanging out/cuddling: Zoe was definitely an independent, mellow kid from the beginning. She was perfectly content just hanging out on the Boppy pillow or bouncy chair – while I worked on the computer or did errands around her – for fairly long stretches of time. Avery, on the other hand, doesn’t like to sit alone for very long; she prefers being held or bounced (especially by her mom). This doesn’t stress me out, though: I always wished Zoe liked to hug more (still do, actually!), and I’m not sure I’ll ever get sick of cuddle-time with Avery!

-M

After a brief bout of illness (mine) on Saturday, the four of us were ready to get out and enjoy yesterday’s gorgeous weather. The day started at the zoo, where we met up and ran around with our friends Doug, Amy and little Jack. (We tried to get some pics of the kids together, but let’s just say they were pretty fast.) Afterwards Uncle Dan and Jenny came over to babysit – giving Q and I some much-needed time away, and giving them some bonding time with little Avery! Here are some pics.

-M

We haven’t posted a lot of Avery photos lately (though we did capture her first smile below) – so I thought I should put up a few recent pics. And coming soon: some fun pictures from the weekend.

-M

For the past several months, Zoe has had an interesting/strange bedtime ritual: after being put to bed, she pops up, wanders into whichever room we’re in, and watches us (sometimes with some tears) until she gets bored and heads back into her room. (We had tried a bunch of different tactics to get her to stay in bed, but finally decided that just ignoring her when she came out was the best approach. It was the only thing that didn’t send her into screaming fits – and we knew she would eventually go to bed on her own.) I assumed the ritual would be short-lived, but once this phase hit the three-month mark, and once Avery was born, I thought, “Enough is enough!” I wanted to put a stop to these visits.

One night last week I told Zoe at bedtime that she couldn’t come out of her room after I left. “You’re a big girl now, and big girls go to bed when they’re told,” I said to her. After a series of “why?”s and complaints, I told her she had to set a good example for Baby Sister. And I told her she didn’t have to stay in bed if she wasn’t tired – she could read or play with her stuffed animals, but she had to stay in her room. To my great surprise, Zoe listened: she stayed in her room (with a few reminders) that night, and she’s done the same every night for over a week now. I’m so glad this phase is over, and I only wish we had ended it earlier!

-M

I was reading a book about babies the other night when I saw that most newborns start smiling at or before 6 weeks. (Yes, I know we’ve already had a baby – but I couldn’t remember when Zoe hit this first milestone. It’s amazing how much you forget!) I hadn’t seen Avery really smile yet (the previously posted picture was just a gas bubble), and I started to fret. Could something be wrong? Was she not developmentally on-track? Q laughed at me, of course, and I think Avery did too – because the very next day she started smiling. A lot. And I grabbed the camera!

-M