3 months- Shea

3 months already! Hard to believe it, but we've hit the 3 month mark, where things start to calm down and fall into place.  Have to say, not much has to calm down with Shea, as he's a very relaxed, smiley baby already!  He loves to smile and when we go to get him from a nap or sleeping, he looks up at us with the biggest heart melting smile there is.  So cute! 

Eating: Since sleeping through the night (this is officially night 3), he's doing 5 bottles of about 6ozs each. 

Sleeping: 12 hours at night (7-7) and his awake time during the day is about an hour / hour 1/2. 

Mov't:  He has already started to do the caterpillar crawl across his play mate.  He turns from his stomach to back with ease and has turned the other way about twice now.  Full mobility is in his near future.

Speech:  Shea is a great coo'er.  He loves to watch your mouth and imitates the movements.  He is vocal, especially at night, but not much of a crier.  His cries sound like mheww's and only when he's hungry does he start to ramp it up. 

Shea follows all of us with his eyes now.  He can pick up Jocelyn's voice from across the room and will turn his head to look for her.  I see him searching out my eyes in a crowd and when he finds me, gives the most adorable grin (sighhh). 

CIO- part 2

It's now Seamus's turn... crying it out is upon us.  We decided to sleep train Shea at 3 months since he's almost 15lbs and can certainly make it through the night without food.  I'm a bit nervous about what to expect with him.  He's so good that I almost worry he's going to really give it to us tonight.  We put him down at 7pm and won't be getting him until 6am tomm.... here's hoping!

** Night one- woke up at 1:45 and mheww'd for about 45 mins.  Got up at 7am happy as can be and pounded 7ozs. 

** Night two - he slept right through from 7:30-6:45.  Not as hungry when he woke up, ate around 5ozs.

** By the 3rd or 4th night, he was sleeping 11 hours.  Took us a few days to get all our schedules in synch (meaning getting both kids down around 7) but by week two, we got it down.  He'll occasionally wake up during the night, sqwalk for a min and go right back down.   

We visted with Gi-gi DeBruyne to see how she was re-couperating after her second knee surgery.  Having kids clamer all over you always help you heal faster, at least mentally!
Gigi is a trouper and is healing up nicely. 

Olympics here we come!

Michael Phelps, you've got nothin' on me.

Just a little farther...... part of her graduating from guppy to the next level is they have to pull themselves up and climb out of the pool on their own.

 It was a bit of a rough start, but I think J is well on her way to becoming an Olympic gold medalist... she just has to work on her kicking a bit. 

J has been taking swim lesson's for the last 6 weeks.  First two were filled with tears, but determination.  After staying at the shore for a week, she was filled with confidence and has decided to become the next Micheal Phelps (with swimmies of course).   She's been doing amazingly and it's hysterical to watch her "swim" around the pool on her back, checking out the other girls swim suits and seeing how she'd like to chat up after class.  Completely at ease, as if she's been doing this for months. 
We're taking a break in the lesson's now, but she enjoyed them so much that I think we'll re-sign her up either this winter or closer to next summer. 

Yaya with her two grandsons

At the Bangor pool- although it looks deep, they are only in 3ft of water

hiking at Jacobsburg

No fear Mom, I have my trusty lantern to guide the way!

Burton, the amazing hiking dog

backpacking it when our little legs got tired

doubt

Second guessing goes right along with parenthood.  Did we make the right decision, should we have done it differently, or maybe even not at all?

We are sending Jocelyn to pre-school in the fall and lately, I've been filled with self-doubt.  Jocelyn was born right before the cut off date for school (born on Nov 23rd, the cut off is Dec 1st) meaning she'll be the youngest in her grade.  I never gave this a second thought because really, what experience did I have with being the youngest in a grade?   I've started having these nightmarish thoughts that Jocelyn will be made fun of because she's acting like a 'baby' or she won't be able to make friends because the other girls will be so much more mature. 
I'm sure these are all normal, apprehensive feelings for a parent to have, but they are now keeping me up at night.  No parent wants to see their child made fun of, especially not in their dreams.  Hopefully our reality will be quite different and she'll do just fine. 

Seaside weekend

Shea 11 weeks

Silly Daddy, you don't fit on that slide!

Here you go Nanny, You can have some of my cupcake

Nanny with her two loves (this is also the first picture where I can really see how similar Jocelyn and Shea look!)  

Oh I'll get you Daddy!

But victory is his... hehehehe

Warm me up Nanny!

Shore- Part 3

Dinner on the beach!  Wine, tacos and sand... doesen't get much better!

my little bambinos

our last night we had pizza delievered right onto the beach... we thought it couldn't get much better and it did!

Down by the bay- the girls were just running in the water,and not allowed to go in (we had already showered.) Logan kept on "falling" in.... rules were made to be broken

A very nice Aunt Michie sitting in the bay with the girls

Quick Logan, I just heard the ice cream man at the end of the block- floor it!

Daddy's not to far behind

Vaca- part 2

Off to camp!

lazy mornings are all a part of vacation

our little beach boy

Ice pops on the deck

Evenings and dinner on the beach were a highlight of our week

happy girl running on the beach

keeing our shoes clean was a big part of the clean up process

cookies at the bakery

Shea was awesome at the beach.  When awake he'd just chill on the blanket watching the girls or the seagulls flying above. 

snack time for everyone!

Vaca! Hitting the beach - Part 1

Shea 8 weeks, Jocelyn 2.75

For vacation this year we spent a week down in Seaside Park, NJ.  My Dad and Maureen were traveling in Northern Europe for a month, so they asked my sister Mysh to watch the Dog and house while they were away.  We headed down for the last week of her stay so the kiddies could play and we could hopefully catch some R&R.   Well, the kiddies did play! Wasn't the most relaxing of vaca's only b/c there were 4 kids, 3 adults and 2 dogs in one house and the first and last group had lots of energy!

The girls had a blast though- we enrolled them in summer camp on M-F from 9-12, which turned into a God-sent.  Gave us some time to breath and them a chance to play.  

We hit the beach 3-7 nights for dinner on the beach which was great.  Taco's, sausage and peppers and even had pizza delivered there.  With Shea being so young, we didn't feel comfortable bringing him up there during the heat of the day, so 5pm was perfect timing. 

The Park Bakery was a huge hit this year, with visits from Santa and lots of Nemo and Smiley face cookies.  There is nothing better then walking over to the bakery after a day at the beach and getting yourself something sweet... good times!

Jocelyn took some time getting use to the water.  The first few days down she wouldn't even dip her toes in either the bay or ocean.  She was quite happy just playing in the sand.  After doing some wave jumping (with much convincing) and spending a day with Aunt Mysh walking her in the bay, she was finally ready to try out the water.  The catalyst was really seeing a group of 5 & 6 year olds playing in the ocean that gave her the confidence to try. 
Logan on the other hand is a complete fish who loves the water and has to be dragged out!  Piper seems to be following in her big sisters footsteps, although she lacks any of the fear that Logan has! 

Cool girl with her shades

no one is drowning with Lifeguard Donlan on duty!

Teaching the girls to jump in the waves.  Also attempting to get J more comfortable with the water. 

The Donlan Boys enjoying the evenings at the beach

Sandcastle plundering!

Butterfly bush!  Our daily walks would include looking for some butterfly's here.