six weeks and nineteen months

and now for a little polly and lucy update.

polly is six weeks old. she was sleepy, so sleepy, for the first month or so but now she's really woken up. she has big sparkly eyes and a little mouth that makes so many cute funny shapes. a very round head and face, round features. i always knew our babes would be round.

she is quiet and good, and seems to have an incredible gentle wisdom behind those eyes. 

she is starting to talk and coo to me quite a bit; i think she is excited to communicate.

she loves to be held in our arms, and is not fond of bouncy seat, swing, or boppy lounger like toot was. she loves to feel our skin: a cheek on her head, her hand to a chest.

she does sometimes just like to lie on her own and calmly look around, for a strangely long amount of time.

also, polly is an eye-gazer extraordinaire.

she wasn't an extremely early smiler like lucy or her cousin scout, and she doesn't smile all the time, but when she does it is so bright, it crinkles up her whole face. i have yet to capture her big huge open-mouth-wrinkled-nose-smile but it is coming more and more frequently so i'm sure i will soon!

she is not a vigorous nurser. she nurses gently and often only for a few minutes. she slips off frequently to stare, or grunt, or smile, or sleep. she burps and spits up more than lucy did too. but she is growing well so i'm not worried. i'm just learning more than ever that every baby has her own style and her own personality.

polly is wearing cloth diapers now. check out that nice big bottom!

also, she has rolled over seven times already. at first i thought it was a fluke at five weeks old, but she has done it several more times during tummy time, both fussy and not. she is a rock n'roller no doubt.

she's also getting realllly good at holding her head up.

i just adore my little bright star. waking up with her next to me in the morning is such a treat, with her beaming eyes and beautiful smile.  

speaking of smiling, lucy is 19 months old and as spunky, smiley, and gregarious as ever!

needless to say she loved valentine's day. after going nuts over the balloons at the grocery store for weeks, she was ecstatic to get her own from nana. she also loved seeing hearts everywhere and would point them out for all the world to hear: "AWT! AWT!"

She can slide down the slide all by herself now. (she used to be just a little bit nervous about it. all it took was seeing a three year old girl do it.)

she loves loves loves other kids. she is the most social person i've ever met. she likes adults too. she will reach out and touch old grannies in the grocery store and then reward them with a giant smile and wave. she just loves people. her favorite thing to do is list out the names of everyone we know. it relaxes her. 

she talks a lot these days, she probably has hundreds of words, but many of her words are indistinguishable and she can get pretty frustrated. 

she cries when i make her get out of the sandbox, when we have to leave the park, in general when it's time to go inside. she gets a little annoyed when i am nursing polly and can't immediately do what she wants. 

but usually things go pretty smoothly. while nursing polly, i try to color with toot or read to her with my free hand. she has so many favorite books that make her so happy. She squeals with delight while pointing out her favorite details. she's into Corduroy, the Berenstain Bears (especially The Bears' Vacation and the Spooky Old Tree), Bits and Pieces by Judy Schachner, 

Children of the Forest by Elsa Beskow, and so many others. Recently she has taken a renewed interest in Goodnight Moon and the fun thing about that is how she points out every. tiny. detail. The kid is extremely observant; she notices things I've never noticed in all my 893 readings of it. Like the little babydoll on the shelf in the background, indeed no baby passes unnoticed.

it's nice she loves babies so much; she absolutely dotes on her own baby sister. her transitional period seems to be over and she almost never does anything too rough to the baby nowadays. she constantly gives polly the sweetest little nose kissies, bringing her face slowly and gently toward polly's and then rubbing her nose or cheek against that soft baby skin. i also notice her frequently trying to hold polly's hand in exciting moments, like while introducing new baby toys (lucy gets much more excited about this than polly).  tootie also asks to hold her, putting her hands out palms-up and saying "oh-wo, oh-wo?"

polly is generally a bit dazed by it all, but sometimes she even smiles about her sister's attentions.

other times, not so much.

lucy has become slightly more picky when it comes to food. she's always been a great eater, but i think it's normal for toddlers to begin asserting will in all areas of life. favorite foods right now are kiwi, pasta, raspberries, crackers, cheese (duh) and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. she feeds herself with both spoon and fork, but often resorts to hands. all of it messy.

lucy has become self-referential, if that makes sense. she refers to herself as "me" or "toot" which is kinda funny, i never would have dreamed that nickname would become so familiar to us all. she points at her chest with her little tapping finger and says "toot do," when she wants to do something herself or "me, me, me" when wanting to watch a video of herself (one of her favorite activities, and she watches with the hugest smile you've ever seen.)

she's very interested in the ABCs and is trying to learn to sing. she knows her colors and her favorite seems to be purple, which she says pretty perfectly. "dee" is green, "yo yo" for yellow, "beh" for red, "pee" is pink.

she's a climber, loves to ride on the edge of the couch and pretend she's on a pony, loves to climb ladders or chairs and then point to the ground and say "boo, boo." i'm not sure if she's saying she'll get a boo-boo if she falls, or she could go "boom" if she falls down.

basically my tootie is just a pure ray of light.

she's got a wild streak; she's happy; she's adaptable and loving and so smart.

she even plays practical jokes these days, like pretending to be asleep and then surprising us. she loves to shriek with laughter and loves suspense. 

two under two. i always heard that phrase but there is no way to conceptualize what it will really be like until you are doing it. for example, i didn't know and couldn't have imagined that there is no way you can leave your one year old alone with your newborn for even a second. that complicates matters like going to the bathroom or basically doing anything at all.

i've found that it's best to have no expectations from my days.

there are hard days, days when i decide that nothing is going to get accomplished besides keeping my babies and myself alive. but then there are good days; i feel like a superstar, i get laundry done and the bed made and ourselves dressed; we do some fun activities, and i might even get a little time to myself during naptime, and then i cook a nice dinner. those days are fewer and farther between, but guess what? yesterday was one, and today was too. that's a good sign. we're figuring this out and we are often having a lot of fun doing so. and to tell the truth, i'm loving life.

if you ever have questions, comments, or advice about baby-raising, i'd love to hear it all in the comments!

polly's adorable calico bonnet was made by my friend kim's mom.

lucy's vintage kercheif came in the sweetest package from tera.