Dear Florence,

Today you are one month old! It seems as if you have always been a part of our family – you fit into our lives so seamlessly! Your big sister adores you and she is an incredible helper. She is so attentive – whenever she hears you crying she tells me that you are sad and runs to get you a pacifier or a blanket! Although you sleep most of the day you wake up in the evenings right around suppertime. I like to think that you wake up at that time because you know it is when Daddy comes home from work! We absolutely love having two little girls, and we know that we are especially blessed to have you as our daughter.

You still have lots of brown hair and it still sticks straight up on the top of your head. Your bright & beautiful eyes are “newborn blue,” although I am curious to see if they will change to brown like Daddy’s (while I was pregnant I always imagined you with brown eyes and brown curly hair). You started wearing 0-3 month clothes at 2 weeks old, and that is only because we stuffed you into Newborn clothes for the first two weeks – you would have been fine in the 0-3 month size from day one. You definitely love the water – you have had a few baths in the big tub, but most of the time we get you cleaned up in the shower. You open your eyes really wide when you hear the water running, and you just cuddle up to me as we stand under the warm water. You only cry when we have to get you out and dressed again!

Although you entered our world with a crash and a bang (just about four hours after I woke up with labor pains!), you are an incredibly mellow baby. You cry only when you are hungry or need a new diaper, and the rest of the time you are content simply being in the middle of our busy life. Baby-wearing has been a lifesaver, although with the summer heat approaching I know I will have to get a thinner wrap – you are certainly a little hot potato! You are still sleeping most of the time, and at times can be very hard to wake up (you get that from your daddy). You started sleeping in your own room about a week ago, and you actually started sleeping longer once you were not with us in our room! Your preferred sleeping position is swaddled with your right arm out (or both arms out if you can manage it). You’ve given us a few long stretches of sleep at night, and one night you slept for almost six hours!

Sweet Florence,  you are such a blessing! During my pregnancy I wondered how I would ever love another child as much as I love Amelia. Now I know, as does every mother when she has more children, that my heart did not have to split my love – my heart doubled in size! You are so precious, and my life is all the sweeter when I see your bright eyes gazing up into mine. You are the perfect addition to our family. We love you with all of our hearts, and can’t imagine our lives without you!

Love, Mommy

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Amelia had a great time painting one of our old moving boxes so she could use it to wrap Mark’s birthday gifts – early in the week I gave her $5 and set her loose in the dollar store. She left with a bottle of bubble gum-flavored mouthwash, a box of superhero band-aids, a desk-sized orange traffic cone that says “Great Job” and a three-foot long grabber tool. She was SO PROUD of her purchases and very excited to give them to Daddy! The grabber tool has been the biggest hit – very helpful for picking up toys that are accidentally tossed behind the couch! Florence sat in her bouncy seat and helped hold the paintbrushes we weren’t using, while Shelby stepped on the wet paint and left footprints on the birthday box and the driveway.

For Mother’s Day I dressed the girls in matching shirts that were a gift from our lovely neighbor. Amelia was so excited to be dressed the same as Lolo! This was one of the best pictures out of the 40+ that Mark took of us – both of the girls are making silly faces, but at least everyone is looking at the camera!

What a wonderful weekend full of “happy” days – we are so incredibly blessed!

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This is the dress Amelia wore for her first Easter, when she was 3.5 months old (it is size 0-3 and was still big on Amelia). It already fits Florence, and she is only 2 weeks old!

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With all of that being said, today is the first post in my Mondays with Florence project! The first picture was taken on her birthday when she was only minutes old, and the second picture was taken earlier today.

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Amelia is always asking to help change Lolo’s diaper, enjoys bouncing her in the bouncy chair and asks many times a day to “hold baby Lolo”. Grandma tells us that as soon as Mark called from the hospital to announce Florence’s arrival, Amelia wanted to go see her – at that instant! Later in the day when Grandma had a hard time finding a parking spot at the hospital Amelia was almost beside herself with worry that she wouldn’t get to see her sister. She showed some hesitation the first time she saw Florence, but I think she was more awestruck than anything else.

Shelby has taken to her new role as well. She always wants to be in the same room as Florence, and tries to stay as close to her as she can. When I am nursing Florence, Shelby will come up and just stand by me, waiting to see if I will lower the baby’s head so she can get a sniff.

Mark and I are so thankful to have such loving family members who were willing to drop everything at a moment’s notice to help when we need it. Mark’s parents took care of Amelia and Shelby while we were in the hospital, took Amelia to her last music class and had a yummy supper waiting for us when we finally got home. My parents are up from Florida for a week and Amelia is having a blast spending lots of special time with them. Family is such a blessing!

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On Easter morning I managed to get a few pictures of Mark and Amelia before we left for church. It is hard these days to get a “real” smile out of our girl! One of the children’s program leaders at church brought in a baby chick as part of a lesson this morning. Amelia was amazed when she got to pet a REAL chick! She has a stuffed “chickie” who goes pretty much everywhere with her, and she hardly knew what to do when she saw the real chick! After church we went to Grandma & Grandpa’s for the afternoon. Of course Amelia put on her baseball cap as soon as she could, and she kept a tight hold on the bottle of bubbles that she received at church!

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At the beginning of this month Mark had to go on a week-long business trip, and Grandma came up from Florida to keep us company while he was gone! She came with me and Amelia to music class, speech therapy (twice), my perinatologist and my regular OB. At the perinatologist I had a growth scan and it looks like baby girl is measuring right on track – she was a little over 4 pounds (at 32 weeks) and was in the 40th percentile. We are incredibly happy that she is not growing too big too quickly, which happens quite often with Gestational Diabetes.

While Grandma was here we got a lot of things done, including a lot of freezer cooking for when baby girl gets here and rearranging Amelia’s room! We added some new clothes storage inside her closet and some new book/toy storage in her room, which freed up a lot of space – it seems so much bigger in there now!  Rearranging her room enabled us to move her little red table out into the kitchen and make an arts & crafts / school nook. She loves her new spaces, and Daddy was very surprised to see all that we accomplished while he was gone! While Grandma was here we had a few gorgeous days, and Amelia and Grandma played outside as much as they could. We really enjoyed Grandma’s visit, and are so thankful that she kept us company while Mark was away. We are very excited to see her again once baby sister arrives!

Grandma left on Thursday afternoon and on Friday evening we went to the airport to pick up Mark. His plane was delayed for about two hours and we didn’t realize until we got to the airport to pick him up! Amelia and I spent a lot of time watching the other planes while we waited for his to land – she was such a trooper, seeing as how Mark’s plane didn’t land until about three hours after bedtime!

Daisha and Cheryl came to visit on their way from Mexico to Virginia. It was so wonderful to see them! Amelia had a blast playing the swing set and reading books with Daisha, and she LOVED watching Daisha’s dog Era run around with Shelby! We are so happy that they were able to stop by, even though it was just for a few hours.

Some other things we did this month: visit a new frozen yogurt place, read in the driveway while waiting for Daddy to get home from work, visited the greenbelt with friends and fed the ducks, and watered the surprise tulips that popped up in our yard!

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This coming Saturday (March 24th) I will be more pregnant than I have ever been, seeing as how Amelia was born when I was 34 weeks 5 days pregnant. I am having a hard time imagining what my belly will look like if I make it to 39 weeks! Both of my doctors have decided to induce me at 39 weeks because of my Gestational Diabetes, and I am just praying that I make it that long. Hopefully the little one will stay put and the doctors won’t find any reason to induce earlier!

Also, take a look at Amelia’s big open-mouthed grin in the first two pictures! That’s what we get when we ask for a smile. The last few were taken after Mark asked Amelia to give her sister a hug – she’s such a sweetheart!

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Amelia loves getting cards in the mail! The only thing is that she is devastated when we tear open the envelope. She starts crying and asking for tape! I keep telling her that the envelope is trash once we open it, but she WILL NOT throw it away. She will keep trying to shove the card back into the envelope and if she can’t manage that she carries both the card and the envelope around for hours on end. Too cute!

One day I was putting groceries away and Amelia started yelling “SHOES! SHOES!” – I turned around and she had taken two of our Christmas stockings and was wearing them on her feet! She had helped us put them up a few days before but she didn’t call them shoes at that time. We had a talk about what the stockings are for, and I told her that they were fragile and that Daddy’s Aunt Linda worked really hard to make them. Let’s hope she leaves them alone from now on!

Ever since she potty trained herself, Amelia has started dawdling while she washes her hands. Since she potties & washes her hands MANY times a day I have told her that she needs to be faster while doing so. One day I told her that we have to pay for all the water we use – therefore we should wash our hands quickly and not dawdle. A few days after that I had a pot in the sink and was filling it with water . . . she yelled at me and told me to stop wasting water because we had to pay for it!

Mark likes to offer me the crook of his arm when we are out walking together. Apparently Amelia has noticed this and instead of holding my hand in parking lots she has started offering me the crook of HER arm! What a little gentlewoman!

When Amelia wants something and we tell her “no” she tells us that she just wants to smell it. If Amelia asks for a piece of candy or a treat and we say no she says she just wants to SMELL the candy/treat. If she asks to go outside and we say it is too cold/rainy, she says she just wants to SMELL outside! We’ve tested it a few times and given her a treat to smell – she smells it and then slowly hands it back. She’s so funny!

One Saturday morning Amelia climbed into bed with us and give me an “ultrasound”. She has certainly come with me to enough perinatologist appointments to know what she’s doing! She put the pink “blanket” over my legs, squirted “gel” onto my tummy and used Daddy’s deodorant as an ultrasound wand. She told me to roll to one side or another just like the ultrasound tech does when she’s trying to get baby girl to move, and she even made a wooshing sound when she “found” the heartbeat!

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We went to a birthday party for one of Amelia’s friends – Amelia didn’t want to take the hat off all day, so she wore it when we went grocery shopping and got quite a few smiles! The flower was a party favor and it is now a favorite buddy – she has to have it in her bed every night!

Great Grandma came for a visit and Amelia had a good time painting with her.

My little tomboy loves her ball cap, and often wears it backwards. I love her style!

Amelia learned a new way to swing and was very proud of herself.

She dressed herself in a snow hat and a scarf on a beautifully sunny 70 degree day. These cars are a favorite and she plays with them when we get to speech early enough and have time to sit in the waiting room.

Grandma and Grandpa have these funny glasses at their house and Amelia loves getting us to laugh at her!

Grandpa gave Amelia this box of Cheerios and for a few days she wouldn’t go to sleep unless it was cradled in her arms. She even had to take it with her when we went on a quick weekend trip!

Best buddies with her cousin.

Mommy and Amelia enjoyed a candlelit supper one evening when Daddy had to work late.

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