2 years and 2 months old

Layla turned two today. I can hardly believe it! The picture of the day of her birth is still etched deeply into my brain. Does it ever fade? Similarly, does the shock and awe of having children PERIOD ever fade? I have a two year old and a two month old. Saying that aloud makes me shake my head in awe. I still wonder, on many occasions, where exactly these children have come from.

Reading her birthday card from grandma first thing in the morning



Talking on her new cell phone on the way to McDonald's



Eating junk food





Here are a few pics of her eating her birthday cupcakes.




We had a great day today that included auntie, grandma, and her "bubby". We played at McDonald's, opened presents, and ate junk food. Saturday we will continue the celebration at the circus!

Layla is amazing! She has grown so much. I held her a couple of weeks ago, and she seemed so huge. I wondered if she seemed huge because now I have another child tied to the proverbial apron strings to compare her to, who happens to be so tiny, but now I know it is because she has grown like a weed. She is deeply into the terrible twos, but she still makes me laugh every day. She can identify 24 uppercase letters (M and W give her trouble), can identify her numbers 1-10, counts to 20, knows four colors and can sort by those colors, and knows six shapes. She has her two year doctor's appointment tomorrow, so I will get her stats then. I'm pretty sure she's about 28 lbs. I weighed her on our home scale which is probably not too reliable, but it gives a roundabout guess.

Xavier is doing well. He is now going four hours between feeds at night. I am so very grateful because this allows me to get eight hours of sleep which is unheard of in the land of newborns. I feed him at 11pm, Tim feeds him at 3am, and I feed him and get up for the day at 7am. Great stuff. He also has his two month appointment tomorrow, so I'll update his stats then. My guess is 6 lbs. He's a piggy. He takes twice what a guy his size should be taking, and that's on top of being on a higher calorie formula. He is going to be huge!

Here is Mr. Mohawk :)



With grandma



He is a true joy! The only issue we have right now is diaper changes. Whoever said boys are easier to change than girls got it ALLLLL wrong. I can assure you of that. I feel a gray hair squeeze itself into visibility every time I change my little guy's diaper. I'm not kidding.

We're home!

We brought Xavier home yesterday after a very tiring, challenging day. There is so much involved in discharging a premature infant, and it was taxing, both physically and emotionally. I have never been so happy as when we drove away from that hospital. I'm hoping to never see the inside of that hospital again.
He is now 4 lbs 5 oz, exactly Layla's weight when we brought her home from the NICU, ironically. Of course she was only one week old, and Xavier was 6 weeks 4 days old. His first night home is complete, and he and the rest of the family are upstairs sleeping as I blog and enjoy my last few moments alone for the day. His first night went well. Tim kept him downstairs for his 12 am and 3 am feed so that I could sleep. Xavier is a grunter, and his grunting would have kept me up all night. I took care of him at 5:30, and I will let Tim sleep in while I take care of both kids this morning. I expect our system to work out well...until he goes back to work, of course, then there will have to be some adjustments.
Layla is fascinated with him! She's always peering into his pack-n-play at him, trying to touch him, and trying to give him his paci--in his eye nonetheless--but she's still trying to be helpful. It will be interesting to see how her interactions with him unfolds over the next few months.