Oh the Sleepless nights

Zach
We made a super quick trip to the pediatrician this morning to do a weigh in. As with so many things, Chris and I made guesstimates as to how much the little guy weighs. Chris went with 7.5lbs and I thought he would be right at 7. Turns out Daddy wins again. The little chunky man weighed 7lb 5oz. It was obvious that he had filled out quite a bit; he has much less dangly skin throughout his body. On the down side, he is still crying quite a bit. We think we have narrowed it down to gas. It seems each time he starts to screech inconsolably, a few seconds later a series of farts come out. Hopefully Mylicon will do the trick and soothe his gas pains. Other than that he is doing most normal newborn things and steadily staying more alert and holding his head up amazingly well. Along with the newborn beginnings Mommy and Daddy are getting no sleep and no nap time to make up for it during the day. I don't think Chris and I have ever felt our age like we have in the last 3 weeks.



Bella
Lately we have been giving some generic updates about how Bella is doing. So I want to take some time to kind of detail what she has been up to (other than being a great big sister).
1. School - She is in school 4 days a week now. Both of our babysitters are in school full time and are unable to watch her. Luckily we found a mother's day out program in town that does Mondays/Wednesdays and we were able to obtain a spot. She really enjoys interacting with other children. Well, except when a certain little child screams during class all day long. On Wednesday we walked up to class and as soon as we opened the door one little girl was crying uncontrollably. This immediately put Bella in a funk. When I picked her up that afternoon, Bella's eyes were super swollen. Turns out the other little girl never quit crying; as a result, most of the class kept crying during the day. I felt so bad we had to go to my favorite dessert bar and grab a cookie. Other than that, her interest at school is great. It is so cool to watch her focus and process on what someone is trying to teach her.
2. Physical Therapy - Although she is walking great and seems to have a much better sense of balance, she definitely got my clumsiness. The girl falls forward, backward and trips over her own feet. Currently we are practicing stepping up and walking on a balance beam. It is surprising how difficult this is to teach a child. She still has to reach down, grab the step and then put her foot up to climb the steps. She is kicking her soccer ball all around the house as well as enjoying walking in the grass. I actually saw her sit in grass for the first time today. Now we need to practice kicking the soccer ball in the grass.
3. Speaking - We got discharged from speech therapy for the second time today. I had called the speech therapist back in some time in July. After a quick eval we decided to do a once a month visit. At the time Bella's vocabulary was right at 10 words when it should have been around 25. As of today, we are well passed the 40 word mark, which is appropriate for her actual age. It seems the day after the speech therapist did the eval in July she decided to start speaking. And she continues to learn new words each day. Another positive is that she has started to explore numbers and can actually count to 3. We feel very blessed that she has such an interest to learn considering her prematurity.
4. All around cuteness - What can I say...the girl is continuously precious and adorable. There is not a day that goes by that I don't look at her and count my blessings. I think about how cute and unbelievable she is with all of her words, actions, faces and even sassiness. We may be fast approaching the Terrible 2s, but they often make me laugh. The way she tells you "NO" can be so darn funny.


Our matching Yankees shirts courtesy of Auntie Lauren!

We hope all of you are doing great, many blessing to you all!!!