One month

Here's our little Adele at one month.

And just like the other two girls, we celebrated her one month with a cake! She looks a little bummed out that she doesn't get to enjoy that cake herself.

Adele is a pretty sleepy girl these days, still very much a newborn.  She tends to be wakeful for a short time mid morning and late evening, other than her times to eat.  She has been pretty mellow, and relatively easy to get to sleep, with some exceptions when she's uncomfortable after eating.  She'll eat every 2-3 hours during the day, except for when she takes a long 3-4 hour afternoon nap, and at night she's been pretty consistently giving us a 5 hour stretch.  This has been wonderful, except our other two girls have been keeping us up so we haven't quite been able to enjoy it yet.  

Here's a little video of her during her wakeful time at just over 3 weeks old.

Since Adele is still mostly in the eat/sleep routine, we haven't learned too much about her personality yet.  But she is beautiful, soft, sweet, and so wonderful to cuddle with.  When she falls asleep on you, especially a deep sleep after nursing, her presence is so comforting and nourishing.  Despite all the new logistics and challenges of having three children, Adele reminds us how wonderful it is to have a newborn again. We are so glad to have her.

Look at how she's grown in the last month!

 

One week, 6 lbs 15 oz (birth weight of 7 lbs 2 oz, 20 inches long)

One month, 9 lbs 10.5 oz, 21.5 inches long

Shaving cream

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adele's Inspiration

Adele is a name we came across when looking for names for Kate.  We loved the name Kate, but honestly, I had second thoughts about it because it was so common.  In the search for something more unique, I came across the name Adele.  Whenever I'd heard it before, I loved how it just rolled off the tongue.  It sounded classy, beautiful, and maybe even a bit sassy too.  Although, I was a bit worried that the pop singer Adele would turn the name into next year's most popular girls name.

The name Kate Susana just felt right for our second daughter, but I couldn't let go of the name Adele in my heart.  As I kept getting the feeling that maybe Kate was a middle child, I wondered if Adele would be the next one to join our family someday.  It almost felt as though because this name had come up for us, that baby was already set apart to join our family.  As I wrote about earlier, our third baby did surprise us, but then I wondered if this was the reason for the name and the idea of a third child rattling around in my head for so long.  Maybe God was preparing me and preparing a place for her in our family.  When our third baby was born, and it was another beautiful daughter, it seemed quite fitting that her name be Adele.  

Adele comes from the name Adelaide, which means 'nobility'.  I like the name Adelaide, and I also loved the variation on Adele of Adeline.  But we liked the simplicity of Adele.  Adele's middle name is Christine, after Wes' mom, which means 'a follower of Christ'.  Wes' mom has been a blessing to us in more ways than we can count.  She is so kind, selfless, and loving.  We were excited to have the opportunity to honor her in Adele's name.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Adele (only a few days old) and Grandma Chris.  We love you both!

Quotes

Emeline is full of creativity these days.  It's impossible to catch all the funny things she's said.  I've forgotten to post these for a while, but the last ones are pretty recent.
_________________________________________________

Emeline: It's just like the beach. 
Me: What's like the beach?

Emeline: When I don't wear pants and a shirt it's just like the beach. (Commence running around front yard in swim suit and puffer vest before swim lessons.) It's like sand! Just like the beach!

~

Talking about picking up Auntie Tracey from the train station....

Emeline: That's Kaelin's mommy.

Me: Yep

Emeline: I want to see her. She's beautiful. She's nice to me.

~

Wes: Your a big girl

Emeline: I'm an old girl

Wes: Your an old old girl

Emeline: I'm a golden girl!

~

About the stucco guy...
Emeline: His booty is sticking out of his pants. You can see his bottom.

~

While I was pregnant, Emeline keeps coming up to me putting her hand on me or my belly saying...
Bless God...Bless you...Bless.

~

Me: Please go wash your hands with soap

Emeline: silence

Me: Emeline, please wash your hands with soap

Emeline: There's a monster in the bathroom

Me: You can choose to sit at the table with us, or wash your hands then go, okay?

Emeline: Maybe I can step on the monster then he will die!

~

Wes is giving the girls a bath. He's washing Kate and Emeline decided to put shampoo in his hair. 

Wes: I don't like that when you put shampoo in my hair

Emeline: Sorry daddy it was an accident. Accidents happen.

Wes: It was not an accident. You did it on purpose.

Emeline: Sorry daddy, purposes happen.
_________________________________________________

One and a half!

Happy Half Birthday Katie Sue!

Kate at 18 months is one feisty girl. We are in the land of 'no!' And 'mine!'. She's a girl with a purpose and she will not be deterred. She's learned to go after what she wants and defend herself quite well against her stronger, faster big sister. Kate has become less cuddly these days and more if a climber. But she will still lay your head on your shoulder when she's tired.

I'm amazed by her word explosion over the past few months. She seems to pick up new words daily and she can repeat a new word well even if she doesn't know what it means.  Here's a word list I've been working on to keep track of what she can say now.  I'm sure I've left off a few, but these will help us remember the sounds of sweet Kate!

ba-ul - bottle
aw-done - all done
a-ble - apple
mine
mommy - mommy/give it to me/pick me up
Baba- papa
daddy
em-mi - help me
da- that
aben- advent
nana - banana
mo - more , milk
gagi - doggy
baby
del - Adele
ey- eggs
ba- ball
eye
no- no, nose
mou- mouth
nani - nariz
gaguh - cracker
e-ah - ear
bonk - bonk / head
yeah
nigh nigh - night night
boo - book
niño - ninos
unees - undies
bye bye
pa-ee - potty
wawa - water
pees - please
towel
pee ta boo - peekaboo
pita - pizza
eme/ema/em-ine - Emeline
noonool - noodle
ca- car
ba- ball
bou - bounce
uh oh
yay 

Kate loves animals. She loves to watch them, chase them, and read about them. One of my favorite moments lately was when she wanted me to read her stories before bed, she grabbed my hand, led me to her room, chose her animal book, and patted the chair for me to sit down. I loved that she chose me to read, as she's been more attached to daddy in recent months, but I also loved getting to spend some one on one time with her hearing her words and excitement about all the animals.

Her favorite books are her animal books, the potty book (she loves the last page with all the undies), Oso Pardo/Brown Bear (she loves the niños at the end), Jesus loves me (and other singing books), and Donde esta el ombligo.  As for food favorites, she loves bananas and oatmeal squares for breakfast, crackers are her favorite snack, and she's really into dipping her good right now. She even liked some spicy salsa!

Other favorite pastimes for Kate are being naked...she hates to get dressed and will take any opportunity to go pant-less, shirtless or both.  Ironically, she also loves to dress up.  Her favorites are still hats and accessories and shoes, but now she likes to put on the princess dresses too.  She loves ride on toys, cars, and babies.

Here are some pictures of our little mover and shaker at one and a half!  We love her to pieces!

 

 

 

 

 

Adele meets more family

It's been nice to have a baby over the holidays because we've been getting lots of family visitors.  Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to take pictures, but here are some when she met Great Grandma Diane, Grandpa David, and Great Uncle Daniel.

 

 

 

 

 

Adele's first bath

Adele had her first bath!  

She wasn't too excited about being woken up and put in some water.  

But a warm wash cloth calmed her down for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

Then she was a clean little froggy!