Two Months Plus

So Steele turned 2 months old last week. He is now 13 lbs 7 oz (87th percentile) and 23 inches tall (54th percentile). He is growing like a weed. He still wants to eat all the time and wakes up twice at night but he seems to be getting into a routine and things are settling down a little. He has been a pretty easy baby so far although he does like to be held a lot. He is getting to the point where we can just put him in his crib when he is tired and he will fall asleep-which is wonderful. He loves to have something soft on his cheek when he is going to sleep and will rub his face against his blanket to feel it. If he doesn't have a soft blanket he has a hard time sleeping. He has started smiling some and does a tiny bit of very soft babbling. His most recent discovery is his hands. You would think they were made of sugar by the way he sucks on them. They are de-lish. I love that he found them because often when he starts crying and I can't get there right away, he will find them and settle himself down. Hallelujah! We do love our little guy.

Emberisms

It is time for another installment of Emberisms. There are some really fun ones this time so here goes.
For about a week every time she walked away she would turn around and remind me, "Don't forget to buckle your seat belt." 

Lately she has been telling me about Dumbo, who is apparently a big bully. He steals her purse and knocks her off her bike. She will sometimes say that Dumbo won't get us.

She will often grab her purse and go to the store. Then she will run into her room. Sometimes she will say I am going to the candle and run in her room. She apparently has a giant candle in her room that she will blow out. 

Ember insists on saying every prayer. It is almost always the same one (I didn't teach it to her, she must have picked it up on her own). For awhile we would ask who should say the prayer and she would reply "Me, this girl, Ember." then proceed to say the prayer without any further comment.

"Pee pee and poop play in the potty." (toilet paper does too on occasion).

Josh and I were talking in the kitchen and she came in and said, "Behold, Mommy and Daddy."  We about fell over laughing.

Ember: Ah we an ooh me a ne
Me: What are you singing?
Ember: A love song. 

"I  am going to grow up and be 3 like mommy is 3."

Me: What comes after twelve?
Ember: Three-teen.

"I am upset. I need to go lay down."
 
"Mommy is a good woman." (Thanks Ember, I appreciate it, I just wonder where you got that little tidbit of knowledge from)

She has started to speak in storybook voice. I hope that doesn't mean we read too much. She will often speak for her toys as you would read from a book. For example: "Look a bath, the bear cried. It leaped in the bath."

When we were visiting my Mom, she came inside and announced, "The outside made me angry."

I was talking with a friend of mine and Ember came up by us. My friend asked her "How are you, honey?" She looked offended and said, "I'm not honey." Then later she came up and started calling my friend "Honey"
 
Occasionally Ember will put herself down for a nap if she is tired. One day she said she was going to bed and went into her room. We heard her say her prayers and crawl in. It was pretty cute. She also sometimes puts her toys to bed and says prayers for them.

I was eating something and Ember came into the room and asked "Can I have a bite?" I gave her one then she came back and asked, "Can I have another bite?" immediately after she asked, "Can I have all the bites?"

After a big fall - we were waiting for the crying to start and she stood up and in a matter-of-fact voice said, "I guess there isn't no oww-y." 

She ran into our bedroom and in a very excited voice said, "I have hands!"

One day she asked Josh in a very sad voice, "Why do I matter to you?"I felt so bad. Josh reassured her that he loves her and that she really does matter to him.

She is turning into a very good big sister. Today Steele was crying and Ember said, "Steele is sad, we should go sing to him."

Yesterday we went to Walmart and bought groceries then we picked out some new pajamas for Ember and looked at swimsuits for Steele. Then we went to get some storage boxes for Josh. When we were finished, Ember turned to me and asked, "What are we going to buy for you, Mommy?" It was awfully sweet of her to think of me. I might have teared up a little bit. She has such a good heart. I do love my little girl.

Exploring Tulsa

 We have done a little bit of exploring recently and have found some gems in OK. This is the Tulsa Driller, he is a 100 ft tall icon of the oil industry located on the fairgrounds. You would think that a 100 ft tall man would be easy to find, but we drove around the fairgrounds for quite awhile before we spotted him. Ember had fun climbing on his shoe but seemed a little confused about why we came to see him.

 Nobody else was around so we couldn't get a real family photo so we made due with a shot of the girls and one of the boys.

Our next stop was Oral Roberts University and the praying hands. It is amazing how big they really are when you see them in person. The architecture at Oral Roberts is really neat too, but I didn't take any pictures of it.

Next stop...Walmart. No pictures taken there but I am sure you could imagine the scenery. Three stops with two kids under 3 is plenty for us. They were about spent by that time and everyone was ready for lunch. We will do more exploring another day.

Welcome Baby Steele

He has finally arrived! Steele Victor was born on April 5th at 2:25 pm. He was 8 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long. He has a full head of hair and is quite handsome. I was induced that day and the doctor thought he would come a lot sooner than he did. He took his time showing up and there was a short period when we thought I would have to have a cesarean. He finally decided to come though and was much bigger than anyone thought he would be. I had only gained 16 lbs through the pregnancy with having a few illnesses and so I figured he would be a bit smaller than Ember was (they were the same weight at birth). He had a little difficulty breathing at first so they had to give him some oxygen immediately but he was fine shortly after and hasn't had any problems since. His middle name is after his grandfather on Josh's side and his first name is just because we really like it. We have noticed that people either love or hate it when we tell them what we named him. I came home from the hospital on Saturday and have been adjusting to life with two kids. My mom was here to help for a couple of days but now I am on my own and it is definitely a lot more work, although the 2nd child is so much easier than the first because there are so many things that don't bother you as much, like a little bit of crying. I am much more relaxed the second time around. Here are some pictures of our little guy. We love having him!

Photos and Emberisms

A friend of mine asked me to take their family pictures. I was a little intimidated, mainly because it has been years since I took pictures that I thought were of high enough quality to frame. And secondly, because I have a new camera that I don't know the ins and outs of yet. So, in preparation for this photo shoot and because, shameful as it is, Ember had never been there in the 2.5 years of her life, we took a trip to the Mesa temple for a photo shoot. Here are some of my favorites. She isn't much for posing and would much rather be looking at the pictures then getting hers taken but some turned out okay.She has been saying all sorts of crazy things lately so here are a few of my favorite for your entertainment:
* If mom gets on the table, it will break (gotta love that)
* I walked into her/our room at 9:15 at night thinking, of coarse she is asleep by now. With no other explanation she informed me "You like the yellow one and the red one and Daddy likes the green one" Yup, she got that right. Sure glad she was staying up late to solve that riddle.
*She has been doing a lot of things with her toys lately that reflect what she does. She puts them in time-out, or puts them to bed then will come tell me all about it. My favorite is when she fake hits me with one of her toys then will put that toy in time out for hitting mommy. It is very cute.
*We bought a Curious George book at Goodwill and she has been loving it. One day she was getting into everything and I told her that she was curious. You would have thought she got a prize for how much she lit up. She began telling everyone (including me about 500 times in the next hour), "I'm curious!" Then she would smile proudly. At least I didn't use a different word to describe her. *I was packing up our house and needed something to distract her so I could get things done. I found some rocks that we used as decorations at our wedding. They are black rocks that have words on them such as Love, hope, kiss, smile, etc. I gave them to Ember to play with and she was content for a little while. I was so relieved that I could actually get some things done. I went into the other room and began packing and soon she came bounding into the room and said "Here you go Mom" and handed me a rock. I looked down and the rock said "Listen". I suddenly felt very ashamed for not taking the time I should have for her. I sat down and we played together with the rocks and she talked my ear off for awhile. It was really a lesson to me about how important it is to spend time with her. You know, everything got packed up in time too, even though I spent that half hour with her.