First Vacation Together

 

Tomorrow, we head off to Arizona to visit my sister Kim and her husband Kyle. I am kind of dreading the flight with the two kids. Last time we flew with Kerala she was still using pacifiers and I think that helped a lot in getting her to sleep on the flight. We have packed a ton of toys for the trip (in Kerala's new Strawberry Shortcake backpack which she picked out) and hopefully we can distract her for the three hours it takes to get there. We are only going for a few days, but it will be jammed pack with activities.

We have been doing well. This past holiday weekend we had a bbq to attend every day, went to the park several times with friends and the zoo on Sunday with Grandma Perry. The kids are doing very well. Kian is starting to be up for longer stretches which is fabulous. He is still a happy guy and smiles a ton. He has also started to consistently laugh. Today he was cracking up at Target for no apparent reason - it was pretty cute. Kerala is really sweet with Kian - she has been practicing her ballet moves with him and loves to hold his hand. You can tell that Kian adores Kerala because he saves the biggest smiles for her. It's really sweet to see.

Kerala is doing great. The past three days she has napped which is terrific. In fact, both kids have synchronized their naps the last two days (yeah!). Troy did have some trouble with Kerala napping on Sunday. Basically, she took off her clothes and pooped right in front of the door. When Troy walked in to check on her he smeared the poop all over the floor. Before Troy got to the room, Kerala decided that she would clean up the poop which resulted in poop all over her hands. Thank goodness I was out of the house for that little adventure. The nice thing about the story is that we think she may be on the verge of potty training.

2 years, 2 months, 2 days; 10 weeks, 5 days

 

Another rainy day - unfortunately, we were scheduled to have the kids photos taken at a park today by a friend of ours who is a professional photographer, but that had to be canceled due to the weather. Hopefully, we will be able to get the photos done next week.

The kids are doing well. Kerala has been practicing her ballet dancing at home and insisted on wearing her tutu over her jeans the other day. It was pretty funny. She was even trying to make Kian do some of the sitting moves. She was also hilarious dancing in her music class yesterday. She loves her little friend Ella and she kept holding onto Ella's hands and spinning her around in circles. Poor Ella though - she reminded me of myself dancing with Troy at weddings. Ella and Kerala were really sweet though. After music class we had a great time at the park with Ella and her nanny. Kerala kept wanting to do what Ella was doing. It is really neat to see their friendship. I especially love it when Kerala sees Ella and she screams "It's Ella!"

We have entered the "trying twos". I didn't want to write "terrible" because generally Kerala is great; however, we have had some major meltdowns. I think some of the meltdowns are attributable to her being tired since she has a hard time napping but also think a good portion is attributable to her age. She likes her autonomy so she has a hard time when you say no (i.e., "No Kerala, you cannot have chocolate chips for breakfast.").

Kian is doing really well. We had his 2 month appointment and he gained another 2 pounds and 2 inches. Troy is very proud that his son is 95% for height. We will see how long he keeps up his crazy growth. Kian also appears to be on the verge of laughing. Troy will get him going by tickling under his chin and he has the biggest smile on his face. You can just tell that he absolutely loves it. He is still a really happy guy. He loves to look at Kerala and has the biggest grin when she comes near him. Kerala generally is pretty gentle with him, although today she kept wanting to pull his toes.

We are looking forward to a visit from Kerala's old nanny, Ellen. She is due back in town tomorrow and we are scheduled to get together.

Rain, Rain, Rain

 

 

Usually I like rainy days, but this is getting to be ridiculous. We usually head out to activities even in the rain, but today I just did not feel up to it. Hopefully, it starts to clear up soon and we can get some solid days in at the park.

As you can tell by the blogged photo - Kerala is in ballet class (technically, pre-ballet class). She will usually do a few activities with the group then come sit by us and then get back up and do a few more activities. She seems to get really shy in new settings. This weekend will be our third class, so hopefully she will feel a bit more comfortable. One funny thing about the class is that there is this little girl who antagonizes her. It's just funny because Kerala is usually the one that is doing the antagonizing.

We are still having trouble with Kerala's naps. Basically, I have accepted the fact that she will not nap during the day so if she does end up taking a nap I am super excited and surprised. We still do quiet time but we have moved Kerala's bedtime up to compensate for the missed sleep during the day. Today was one of those rare days that Kerala actually did take nap. It was pretty sad though because she fell asleep in her closet (her favorite play spot). I got a little freaked out because I had not heard her for awhile on the baby monitor and when I went to check on her she was curled up in this little ball in the corner of her closet. When I bent down to check on her I woke her up and she immediately stood up and said "I must play!" and then burst into tears because she was tired. She went to sleep a few minutes later in her bed and had a glorious 1 1/2 hour nap.

Kerala is getting pretty sassy with her language. Yesterday she said "Mommy stop talking" and today she asked me to stop singing :(. She also is pretty funny with how she asks for certain things (i.e., "Mommy I need more tickeling"). She also has no qualms about telling you to leave the room if she wants to be alone with either mommy or daddy and will often ask us to put Kian down.

Kian is doing really well. He is still a really happy and easy baby. He loves to grin and is getting really good at rolling from stomach to back. The other day he kept rolling from stomach to back and Kerala thought it was the funniest thing and would ask him to do it again. Kerala has been really into holding and touching Kian lately. She will hold his hands when we read books together and try to hold onto him if we are all dancing. Unfortunately, she has also tried to pick him up a few times. Kian just smiles at her and is generally pretty psyched about his big sister.

 

Things have been going well around here. Kian had his one month dr's appointment and is doing great. At his one month appointment he had gained a bit over 3 lbs and grown 2 inches in length since birth. He is generally a pretty happy guy, although tonight he has been a bit fussy. This past weekend we got out Kerala's activity mat which he has been super psyched about. He rolls back and forth and has rolled from tummy to back a couple of times. He seems to be really close to going from back to tummy, he just gets hung up on his arm. I am starting to figure out his sleep patterns - basically he likes to sleep every hour or so. They are generally cat naps of 30 - 45 minutes unless we are out or if someone is laying with him - then he will sleep up to 3 hours. I haven't found a consistent time to put him to sleep at night yet, that's something we are working on. If we put him down he will start crying unless we are with him so a lot of nights he will sleep in our arms until we go to bed.

Kerala is doing really well. She is at a really fun age language development wise. Yesterday, we were eating lunch and she said "So mommy, how are you?" She also yelled to Troy as he was leaving the house "Peace out yo!". Her other funny thing lately is to be doing something and then pretend call her music teacher Mary to let her know what we are doing. Today we were finger painting and she held her hand up to her ear as if it were a phone and told Mary that we were finger painting. Unfortunately, she had paint on her fingers which then got in her hair.

We had a great Easter around her. Kerala was pretty excited about coloring Easter eggs and finding them the next morning. When we told her to find the Easter eggs she said they were in the refrigerator which was pretty funny. She was very excited about her basket and the chocolates that the Easter bunny left. Kerala had been asking about underwear lately so the Easter bunny included some in her basket, but unfortunately he/she accidentally picked up boy's underwear rather than girls. Kerala got to go on an Easter egg hunt with her buddies at our friends' house and we wrapped up the day with a visit with Grandma and uncles. Overall, a terrific day.

 

Updates

 


 

Okay a quick update....Everyone is doing well. We had Kerala's two year and Kian's two week appointment this past month. Both kids are doing fabulous. Kerala gained 2 lbs since her last dr's appointment, which was great news. She is 50% for height and head and 10-25% for weight. The doctor was very pleased with her verbal and physical development. Kian also had a fabulous appointment. He was about 9 lbs and had gained an inch and a quarter in length since he was born. We don't know his percentiles (I think we find those out at his 1 month appointment). The doctor said because he was doing so well with weight we could just let him sleep through the night if he wanted to. Unfortunately, he has not wanted to but we are still getting plenty of sleep around here. The only negative to his appointment was that he had a rash on his face which the doctor said could take a couple of months to go away. Since Kian's appointment he has started to smile a lot and is making the adorable baby cooing noises. He still sleeps a ton - honestly, this is the most mellow baby ever. We have Kian's 1 month appointment this weekend, so we will update with stats.

This past weekend we finished Kerala's birthday celebration with two birthday parties. My sister Kim flew in to help us out with the parties and help us get organized in general. While we had a busy busy Saturday, Kim and I were able to get some great sister time in on Sunday and let Troy take care of both kids for a couple of hours. Kerala was a bit overwhelmed at first with the parties, but she eventually warmed up and had a great time at both. Kian basically slept the entire time at the parties. It wasn't until everyone left that he put his party hat on and we had one of the worst sleeping nights with him since he was born. Generally, he will wake up once or twice during the night; however on Saturday, it seemed like he was up all night long.

We are still struggling with Kerala's napping. Kerala seems to want to nap about half of the time. I thought maybe her napping correlated with the level of activity she had in the morning, but I don't think that's the case since she walked over a mile this morning and did not want to sleep at all. The doctor was fine with her not napping, but did suggest moving her bedtime up if she seemed tired.

One final note, our Kerala's nanny Ellen left us this past month to return to school. It was a very sad day at the Smerry household. Ellen was such a terrific nanny and really cares for Kerala (as evidenced by the fact that she called Kerala on Sunday all the way from Guatemala!). We are still adjusting to a Smerry household post Ellen but I think overally we are doing well.

Transition, transition, transition...

 

Kian will be 2 weeks old tomorrow and we are still getting used to having a newborn in the house. Kian is a very mellow baby so the transition has not been too difficult for Troy and me, but Kerala does have her moments. If I am holding Kian she will ask for someone else to hold him or if it's just the three of us she will say "Mommy hold Kerala" or "Mommy hold you." We are working through it though and she is generally pretty psyched about Kian. She loves to help change his diapers. It's pretty cute because she will act as my assistant handing me the wipies or diaper. I don't know if her love for changing diapers is the reason she always goes up to Kian and smells him and says "poopie diaper." We are also still working on Kerala being gentle with Kian, but for the most part she has been doing pretty well.

Not only are we transitioning Kerala with a new baby in the house, but we also had to move her out of her crib. About a month or so ago she had climbed out of her crib by piling her stuffed animals together and using them as leverage. We took out all but two stuffed animals in hopes that that would delay the bed transition for a bit. Unfortunately, she climbed out again last week and actually hurt herself in the process by falling. Nothing serious, just a bruise so we were lucky. This past weekend we moved her into a big girl bed and she has been doing really well overnight and it's kind of hit or miss for naps. Yesterday during her nap she turned her room into a disaster - she took out all of her books, all of her cloth diapers, took off hte changing table pad and a lot more. Ellen and I kept going in and tell her that if she wasn't tired she still needed to do quiet time. Today has been better - she has been asleep for about two hours.

As far as Kian, he is doing really well. He is nursing well and had surpassed his birth weight at his 4 day visit, so the doctor was very pleased with that. He is quite the sleeper - it seems like he is typically up for about an hour in the morning and then an hour or so in the late evening. Other than those times and when we change diapers and nurse, he is asleep. I keep worrying about him because Kerala was not the biggest sleeper at the beginning. We have his two week appointment on Tuesday, so hopefully he is continuing to gain weight.

Check out the March photos - there are shots of the first of four b-day celebrations for Kerala. By the way, if you ask Kerala how old she will be on Monday she will respond by saying either 4 months or 2 (I am not quite sure where she got 4 months from).

Kian Ford Smith

 

After much anticipation, Kian Ford Smith finally showed up - he was 9 days past his due date. Kian was born on Friday at 12:56 pm and was 7 lbs, 9oz and 20.5 inches long. About a lb heavier and an inch longer than Kerala was when she was born. Everyone is doing great and it seems like Kerala is adjusting really well to being a big sister. She was super psyched when Kian came home and not so psyched when I held him at first, but after some cuddly time with me she seems to have adjusted just fine and had no problems with I held him later in the evening or today, our first full day home.

Our birth experience was much different than with Kerala - mainly because of our fabulous midwife, doula and labor and delivery nurse. There were times that were even comical - such as me vomiting in the cab ride over to our dr's office while our cabbie was smoking a cigarette and the hospital receptionist repeatedly asking me why I was there even though I was having contractions in front of her. The labor went much faster as well and today, when I was speaking to my doula, she told me that she was very concerned that she was going to have to catch the baby because my midwife and nurse had stepped out of the room just before I was ready to deliver.

Kian is adjusting well to his new world. Right now he seems to be a pretty mellow baby. He seems to only get upset when you change his diaper or right before a feeding. We have his first dr's appt tomorrow so I am curious to see how he does.

We posted Kian's hospital and first day home photos in the February 2009 link so check them out.