more pics of olive: day 5 (already!)

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Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

more pics of olive: day 5 (already!)

update time:

i fee like time is flying. it’s almost been a week! this is my first blog since saturday, so that may give you a little insight as to my time availability for blogging… i finally have a few minutes, so i thought i would offer a few updates and put up a few new pics.
olive: she’s looking more and more beautiful each day. her skin is gorgeous, her hair is shiny and beautiful and she’s starting to open her pretty little eyes up and look around more and more. she’s eating fairly well (especially compared to lucy when she was born), but, i hate to report, she’s not doing that well at sleeping. well, sleeping during the night time, that is. she’s a pro at snoozing during the daylight hours, but she’s found that, apparently, all the action goes down at night and she doesn’t want to miss it. she’s also decided that she’s cool with sleeping at night as long as mommy or daddy is awkwardly and uncomfortably holding her, but you put her down in her bed and there’s some serious shreiking occurring… so, we’re gonna have to work on that. otherwise, though, she’s doing really well.
lucy: i’ve been seriously impressed with big sister lucy. for the most part, taking care of lucy has been my job (although lucy would prefer that that wasn’t the case at times…). she really loves olive and just wants to hug her and give her a blanket and rub her head and, for whatever reason, clap her hands. by and large, she’s done really well. there have been, of course, a few incidences…
1. all was happy and utopia until olive made the fatal mistake of laying in the baby swing, of which lucy believes is hers. the moment lucy walked over and discovered her in it, there was some weeping and gnashing of teeth of biblical proportions… (she got over it in a minute or so and she has no problem at all with it anymore)
2. what do you get when you combine the following: art-loving lucy, a peacefully sleeping olive in the aforementioned baby swing, mommy and daddy stepping away for a minute…and a purple crayon…? you get big sister using little sister’s face for a canvas… (!) fortunately, we saw her just seconds after she began, so all was well and lucy got to have a talk with daddy.
3. when i say that lucy “just wants to hug her and…”, what i should add to that statement is “smacking her in the face and soft spot…” in all fairness, lucy just thinks it’s a fun game, but nevertheless, it makes for a tense moment…
christen: as impressed as i am with lucy, i couldn’t be any more impressed and proud of christen. she’s really been amazing. she’s a great mom and has done a good job juggling a needy newborn and an equally needy 18-month old (who is used to getting 100% of mommy’s attention during the day). for any woman who hasn’t had children and sees all those happy commercials or billboards or ads of smiling women talking about how great breastfeeding is…let me give you a reality check: it hurts like a b! don’t get me wrong, we are very big on breastfeeding and don’t plan on not doing it, but no one really tells you how challenging and painful breastfeeding is. with that said, christen has really troopered through all this with olive. trust me, there’s been some touchy moments, but she’s done really well and i’m proud of her.
me: as i said, i’ve, primarily, been in charge of lucy stuff. that, for the most part, has worked out pretty well…until the last 24 hours or so… apparently my immune system decided to take a vacation or just step out for an extended smoke break or something, because, of course, in the midst of the chaos of having a newborn, i’m sick! at this point, i’m actually out of bed and being somewhat functional (not much of a choice in our situation). christen’s done a really good job of picking up my slack, but there’s only so much she can do.
alright, enough chatter…here’s some pictures. (you can see a many more at christen’s flickr page). (click to see images larger)