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So it seems Jade is destined to be the typical second child whose life is far less documented than that of her older sister's. The thing is, however, that we've taken tons of photos, but they just don't seem to make it onto the blog. And that makes me sad. Jade is going to be TEN MONTHS OLD in less than a week and I haven't posted a single photo of her since she was three days old.

Oh, Blog, she's beautiful. You're missing out. I'm going to attempt to be better. Truthfully, most posts will likely be instagram dumps and the like - and I doubt I'll have time or the brain power to ever write anything clever again, but oh well. I just want one place where I can come and see all these photos and remember these times.

So these are all phone pics from just this last week. Some are edited, most are not. They aren't in order. Just some moments of each of our girls.

First up: Jade.

Jade is our big, curious girl. still in the 95th-ish percentile for everything and getting into everything possible. Her favorites are trash, cords, and whatever Lola is playing with. It's so much fun. A happy baby when her needs are met, a banshee when they're not. Loves Big Sister, but doesn't love when Big Sister knocks her over. Jade is a quick learner and such a sweet baby. She scrunches her nose up when she smiles big. I love it.

Friday was spent trapped in our apartments with no power all day. Seriously trapped. Couldn't get our car out of the gates and it was dumping rain. We read lots of books that day. And ate a few, too.

 Jade is pulling herself up on everything and loves to "walk" with assistance.

 She gets really bummed that she hasn't figured out how to get down.

 She's the happiest after long stretches of sleep...in our bed, preferably.

 Assuming she's fed, rested, and getting attention, she's the happiest baby ever.

 She (mostly) loves when Big Sister pays any sort of attention to her.

 And Lola. Oh, Lola. You have been a challenge lately. Strong opinions, strong will, and lots of power struggles this month. It didn't help that you (and Jade...and Kenny) were all sick this month. As in the WHOLE month. But you are still ridiculously fascinating and fun.  Your verbal skills are improving and we're working on full, descriptive sentences. The result is that you say some pretty funny things. I love getting these glimpses into your thoughts.

 Miss Sass. (She's acting like Time Out is no big deal in this photo. Bummer for me, because I want her to KNOW that it is a VERY BIG DEAL when she decides to kick her little sister.)

 But she's still so pretty.

 She's hit or miss on naps lately. I LOVE when she'll still take one. Mainly because I love how she sneaks down stairs afterward.

 Finally learned that with proper footwear, puddles are FUN.

 The beach is still her favorite place on earth.

 "Mom! I very, very, too, too cute. A lot." (wearing my Easter dress from 1985.)

 Rain boots, rain coat, no pants. No problem.

 Making valentines (part 1) while Jade naps.

So there's our week in iphone photos (mine at least). January 22nd through January 28th, 2013.

Till next time.

She's sorta beautiful.

(Picture taken in late August 2012 / age 2 years and four months. The moisture on her upper lip is from trying a bite of Jade's rice cereal. Her face tells how much she liked it.)

So I have really let this whole blog thing go the last few months. I've been keeping a "line-a-day" journal everyday since Jade was born, just to have some record. Sadly, on July 28, I accidentally deleted the WHOLE THING. I tried and Kenny tried to retrieve it with no luck. I cried. A lot. Four months gone in a second. Insert HUGE sigh here. Good thing there's instagram so I at least have some record of what life has been like lately.

Life lately... in a nut shell:

The transition from one to two kids was a hard one for me. Nursing was again a nightmare, but I think we finally have a rhythm. Moving just after having a baby made everything worse, but I'd rather not dwell on that any longer. Things are better.

Jade just turned four months and is a healthy (16.8lbs!!!!), happy girl. She continues to be more "work" than Lola was, but at the same time she is wonderfully sweet. She gets so happy with the smallest bit of attention bestowed on her and she gives the best smiles. She has my heart. Lola gets so excited to see her and just recently, Jade has started reciprocating the excitement when she sees Lola. It's cute. I don't know how to explain the relationship Jade and Kenny have just yet, but Jade loves the attention she gets from him. Lola is so much fun lately. Always learning something new and developing (strong) opinions on things. She really likes to test me lately which is NOT fun, but on the whole she's pretty awesome.

My sister, Becca, graduated high school in May and has been living with us for the summer. Given that I moved right after having a baby and given that we moved into a tourist town at the beginning of summer it's been hard to meet people, so I'm very glad she's been here. She's been a great help with the girls and it's nice to have a buddy.  We'll be sad to see her go when she starts college.

Since I last wrote Lola turned 2 and Kenny turned 33. And then I turned 29 last week. I don't really have a definitive explanation for how I'm coping with this birthday. My feelings on the subject are all over the place. It was a Sunday birthday, which always sucks, but I had a nice, low-key day with Kenny, the girls, and Becca. We topped it off by having the Wallaces down for dinner and to hang out at the beach.

The beach. Let it be said: living less than a mile from the beach is AWESOME. 'Nuff said.

There's so much more detail I could include, but the thought of doing so is overwhelming. So that's the state of things right now. For fun, I'll be really literal and give the True status of things RIGHT THIS SECOND (at 9:22pm): I just put Lola down for bed. She only fought me a little. Jade is due for her final feeding of the evening, but I'm in no hurry to wake her up. Becca is at FHE and then going on a date with Jeff (a boy from her ward whose parents are in my ward. He's a nice boy. I'm glad for that.). Kenny is at a bon fire with friends. We got the invite too late for me to go (i.e. jade was already asleep, we'd had dinner already, and lola gotten cleaned up). So i find myself with a rare moment alone. So here I am finally updating this poor, neglected blog. To be totally honest, I'm only giving this update to avoid hitting the gym. (Since I can't go further than a baby monitor will allow, my only option is the treadmill. BORING.)

So that's life right now. Slow. But that's fine.
Maybe I'll get some photos up on this thing sometime. If not, there's always instagram.

Lots of Pictures...

Jade Matilda. I'm just going to post a whole bunch of photos. Enjoy.

3 days old and finally home.

Five days old.

(She rolled over at one week. Also, when left on her tummy she will scoot herself forward until she's off the blanket. Bummer.)

 My mom got into town when Jade was 6 days old and stayed for two weeks. It was wonderful having her here - especially during the move - and Lola misses her terribly.

 Lola finally became interested in her little sister about a week after she was born.  She was especially fascinated by Jade's toes (below) and her belly button. Lola kept looking at it and saying "ouch" as Jade's umbilical cord had yet to fall off.

 It wasn't long before Lola had to introduce Jade to her Yo Gabba crew.

 And she insisted that Daddy put some sunnies on Jade.

 Jade makes some pretty great faces...

 Jade and Grandma

 Jade at two weeks old...and not super happy.

 Finally calmed down.

Lady J is 1 month! And a quick play-by-play of her birth

So, since it's already been ONE WHOLE MONTH since Lady J made her grand entrance I figured I'd better jot down some details of her birth day before I forget altogether. So, without further adieu, lets roll back the clock to April 3, her actual due date...

• 7:30am - after feeding Lola and making sure Kenny was good to go, I hit the gym (less concerned about fitness than on getting labor started). This being the morning of her due date, I was officially OVER being pregnant. 
• 9:00am - arrived at my OB's office for what I hope will be my last appointment. 
• 9:45, after an unusually LONG wait I finally got in to see the doc - well, the sub-doc as my regular OB was on vacation. Of course.
• This doc does the routine check up and decides to strip my membranes - but not before giving me way too much warning that his fingers were WAY BIGGER than those of my regular (female) doctor. Ummm..awkward? A bit. 
• He announces that he "stretched me from a '1' to a '3' and proceeds to measure my fluids. Fluids seem low so I'm sent over to the hospital to be monitored. I give Kenny the heads up and beg him to take Lola to an Easter egg hunt I had planned on attending. 
• 10:45-11:30 - I hang out in triage where the nurses discover that my fluids are actually high. We schedule me to be induced the following week. I high tail it over to the Easter egg hunt to meet my little family. 
• 1:30pm - I'm at home, laundry is going, Lola is napping, and Kenny's finally at his office. I'm talking to my mom and tell her that during the course of our short conversation my back pain has grown noticeably worse and that I should lie down.
• Lying down is really uncomfortable. 
• 2:00 I decide to hop in the shower, which turns into a bath, which gets interrupted by Lola who is up way too soon from her nap. Dang it. Back pain is still strong. 
• 2:40pm - I notice while fetching Lola some juice, that I have to stop twice to breath through the back pain during a VERY short walk from my bedroom to the fridge. At this point I FINALLY realize my back pain is contractions and that they're coming quick. I hurry and install the first 'contraction counter' app on my phone. 20 minutes later, the summary tells me contractions are averaging 2.5-3 minutes apart and are lasting about 50 seconds each. 
• 3:00pm - I text Kenny: "please come home."
• 3:30pm - Kenny rushes in. "Ana's on her way to get Lola, where are the bags?, do we need anything else?, how are you feeling? I got the laundry, how fast are the contractions coming? what can i do? have you eaten anything?"  He asks with in one sentence.  (I'm writhing around on my bed at this point.
• Ana comes and takes Lola, we make it to the hospital at 4:30pm where I learn I'm dilated to a 6/7 and almost fully effaced.
• The rest is a blur...the pain sort of overshadowed the details. 
• I'm rushed through triage and prepped for Labor. Lots of needles. I'm a weeping ball of mess writhing every which way on the bed. I remember being so grateful for the handlebars that I couldn't seem to grip hard enough. Amelia comes and I can't even greet her. I hear a nurse mutter to another "she's in transition." 
• I finally get the epidural while  enduring four contractions. A nurse tells me to hold still and to stop pushing.  I'm checked again and hear this: "she's ready NOW.  But her water hasn't broken; that's her saving grace."  Apparently because my water was still intact, I was permitted to sit through another contraction to let the epidural set in a little before I started pushing.
• 5:15ishpm - pushing starts. I decide I'd rather die.
• 5:30pm - Kenny is told to reach over me and deliver his daughter (her head was already out). 
• Jade Matilda weighed in at 8lbs 2oz and was 20.5 inches long. Beautiful (well, beautifully swollen) and healthy.

My recovery was similar to Lola's, although there was a lot of bleeding initially which alarmed the nurses. I endured a painful little procedure to get the clots out, was hooked up with a catheter (yay) and put on a morphine drip (yay!).  And I've been on an iron supplement all month as a result.

Jade...the girl of the hour. Born on her due date within one hour of us arriving at the hospital. The last month seems to have flown by just as quickly. Jade has proven to be more work than Lola was. She cries a lot more and needs help to fall asleep. And she doesn't sleep in long stretches. Nursing was a challenge and just last night I self-diagnosed myself (and her) with thrush. That's the only way I can explain the pain nursing continues to cause me. She rolled over at one week and continues to do so every time we place her on her tummy. She also scoots herself forward during tummy time and will often make it all the way off whatever blanket I've laid her on. I don't love that she's already sort of mobile. But, the moments when she's not work, she's pretty sweet. So, we'll keep her anyway. She's curious and attentive and always stretches back to see who is holding her. Her favorite is her Dad, of course. I seem destined to birth Daddy's Girls, and that's okay. He deserves their adoration. And it's a mutual adoration. Like with Lola, this relationship between her and her daddy is my favorite thing to observe. I have the added joy this time around of getting to watch Jade and Lola get to know one-another. It's sweet... Lola is attentive and interested and (mostly) gentile. Or as gentile as I can expect her to be. She's taken a special liking to lying on top of Jade, which is a bit of a problem, but so long as I'm around to regulate the affection (and make sure Jade's surviving it), I let Lola go for it. I'm predicting one day Jade will be the taller/bigger of the two and she'll dish it out to Lola. So the score will be settled one day. :)

I have lots of photos...just never the time to post them. Maybe tomorrow. And now, I'm off to feed this baby and hopefully get some sleep. 

Maternity Photos - Jade

So, I have some pretty talented in-laws. It's well documented here that Amelia Lyon is our go-to favorite photographer and it's just an added bonus that she's Kenny's little sister. She kindly took some photos to document this pregnancy and did a smashing job. I LOVE them. Check them out and leave her some love on her site if you'd like.

Remember Lola Dee's maternity shots? No? See my favorites below and many more of them here.