Home, Home, Home

We've been home from the hospital for two weeks and a day now. Evelyn is a beautiful little girl with lungs like you wouldn't believe.  Compared to Elise (who, if you remember, had vocal cord damage from the procedure she had done to close the PDA in her heart and barely had a voice for months), she's crazy loud.  With Elise we had to have the baby monitor up loud to make sure we could hear her in her room.  Not so with Evelyn.

Elise is gradually adjusting to life with a baby sister.  She loves to go up to Evelyn wherever she is and give her kisses, which just melts our hearts.  She's also walking quite a bit now.  I would say she's mostly walking unless she's in a big hurry to get somewhere since she's still often slow and wobbly.  She's also saying all sorts of words and sounds and babbling quite a bit.  Animal sounds are her favorite: rawr (lion), oof (woof for dog), ga (ca for crow), meh or maow (meow for cat), baa (sheep).  A couple of days ago she started saying gook (cook) although sometimes it comes our more like gock.  And she says dada, mom (sometimes), and a bunch of other words from less frequently.  Dat (that) is still her most-used word.

Two days ago Evelyn's cord fell off so I'm now enjoying putting her in little pants and onesies and not just in the little one-piece pajamas I had been putting her in to make sure her cord didn't get irritated.

At Evelyn's one-week appointment, which we went to when she was 6 days old, she was up from her discharge weight of 6 pounds, 11 ounces to 7 pounds, 8 ounces.  At her two week appointment, she was up to 8 pounds, 1 ounce.  She's growing like crazy!  Oh, and part of why she's growing like crazy is because I've had complete success in being able to nurse her!!  Nursing and lack of sleep were the two things I was most concerned about before she was born, and although I'm not getting as much sleep as is ideal, she is nursing wonderfully.

At Elise's 15-month appointment on the same day as Evelyn's one-week appointment, Elise was up to 20 pounds, 4 ounces.  It was fun to see that she had finally hit 20 pounds and that she had put on 12 ounces in less than three weeks.  Her wonderful weight gain can be attributed to her love of food.  And we bought her some forks a couple of weeks ago, which has caused her to eat even more food since she thinks it's wonderful when we spear food for her and then hand her the fork to put the food into her mouth.

Another place where Elise is growing is her hair.  Although she's close to having a mini-mullet since it's longer in the back than the front and top, it makes for some really cute pigtails and even a little ponytail.  It's seemingly impossible to keep the shaggy bits of hair on the side of her head behind her ears so she often looks a little scraggly, but she's still just as adorable as ever and is becoming more and more of a smiley girl every day.

Having two kids under 16 months is challenging, but I'm loving being a mom of two and am so excited to see the girls grow up together!  Kit has been off of work since Evelyn's birth and now my mom and youngest brother are here to help this week since Kit went back to work today.  It's been so very nice to have the help and has greatly aided in the transition for Elise (and for me!).

 This is Evie's signature look.  She loves to furrow her brow.

 Watching He-Man online with dad for the first time on Father's Day.