Sibling Love

 

Having 2 kids is a trip, and a wonderful one.  One of the most common questions I get is what does Elsie think of the baby?  Well, here are some photos/stories to illustrate their relationship.

 

WHenever Cora is in tummy time, Elsie will lay on her tummy next to her and talk to her.  Earlier this month, I ran to grab the camera when I caught her doing this but she got up and left saying "noooo" as soon as she saw me with the camera.  So I went ahead and just took some pictures of Cora instead.

 

 

Once Elsie noticed that I was ignoring her and focusing my attention on Cora, this toy bottle came flying over my shoulder, out of the hand of Elsie. 

Elsie does spontaneously throw things at times but it has happened 10 too many times where she throws things right at Cors for it to be an accident. Grandma would still say otherwise.  Cora often just goes with the flow though.

 

I was able to convince Elsie to lay down and talk to Cora again....

After I moved Cora and left the area, Elsie followed with the same blanket, trying to get me to take pictures of her in tummy time, pretty cute.

 

Then she picked up the blanket in oder to cover up Cora...

..
. and giver her a kiss...

A couple weeks ago, we had another set of siblings over - the Dietenbergers!  Here are some pictures of the 4 of them together.

 

And last week, I really wanted to get a picture of the two girls together in order to give to Grandma for her birthday.  I had to take many pictures in order to get one where they were both somewhat looking at the camera but finally got this one...

Here are a few ofthe many outtakes....

 

The following picture is a great illustration of some of my days with both girls...  Elsie is always slamoring for attention and begging to be held when I am with Cora or trying to do something without her in the kitchen.  Meanwhile, Cora is usually chill and calm as a cucumber (as long as she doesn't want to eat or get to sleep).

Elsie was very proud of "holding" Cora this day.  In fact, the reason she was upset in the above photo is that I wanted to take some pictures of the two of them laying by each other and Elsie just wanted to keep sitting by Cora.

THis is Elsie trying to make Cora smile....  I had just tickled Cora's cheek and Elsie is in a phase where she imitates everything I do!

This is the face Elsie makes when she wants to make people laugh!

 

We are very blessed with these 2 beautiful girls!

Cora 1 month

Our little Cora Bora is 1 month old and here she is with the bunny that the girls got over Christmas...

 

 

 

At 1 month Cora....

 

- Is starting to get lighter eyes, perhaps they are turning blue.

- Has her own unique look.  She looks like Elsie but can't pinpoint any others.

- Has started to give us little smiles.  It is not completely clear if she is doing it on purpose yet or not though.

- Seems to be getting big alothough I have no idea how much she weighs.  She is in 0-3 month clothes now.

-Starts her last feeding between 7:30-9:00 before going to bed for the night.  She'll then last 3.5-5 hours before her next feeding between 12:00-1:00, then goes 3-3.5 hours to eat around 4:00, and is then onto eating every 2-3 hours for the rest of the day.

- Has at least 3 good awake periods through the day.  Early in the day, mid-day, and a couple hours before she has her last feeding.

- So far, does not have the reflux issues that her sister had but does have some similar patterns.  She'll make a lot of the gurgly and throat clearing noises, especially after her last nighttime feedings.  She also does the start-stop eating patterns and smacking sounds.  This probably has more to do withmy letdown.  She spits up a couple of times a day.

- She had her first full bottle on New Year's Day when Matthew and I went out to a movie.  My parents were watching the girls and said she took it great.

- Has started to take an interest in the celing fan, just like her sister did.

-The cephalahematoma that she got after birth has completely cleared up between 3-4 weeks.

- Her right eye seems to go sideways quite often.  It is not common for her to focus both eyes right on you.  This is something that Matthew is particularly concerned about.

-She has been having little cold symptoms with sneezes and boogers.  The doctor warned us at the hospital that she would just be more of a boogery baby since she has a big sister that is bringing all of thes viruses around her.

- She is a trooper with that big sister and goes with the flow when Elsie pull her arm, pats her head, lays on her to give hugs, etc.  She got her first little bruise the other day when Elsie accidentally threw keys at her head.  This happened on grandma and grandpa's watch.

- She is our cutie and we all love her so much!

Christmas!

 

Here are some pictures of the girls on Christmas morning after Santa came!  I didn't take any other pictures over Christmas....right now I am really wishing I had, but at least I was able to soak it all in.