3 years and 10 months!

Miss Olivia is so close to four, I just can't believe it. I read somewhere that when kids are young, the days are long but the years are short. So true--days seem longest at night when everyone is tired and crying (adults and children). But it's also super fun. Olivia likes to play a game where she's the "Bad Princess" and I'm the "Bad Queen." Today she let Sammy be the "Bad Prince," but told me that I couldn't nurse him with my "Evil Nipple." I just about died laughing.

Speaking of Sammy, Olivia is doing pretty well adjusting to his presence. She just want to love him, and sometimes it's too much love, as evidenced here:

But she wants to be helpful and Chris and I try to find things that she can do that are easy but give her a sense that she's an integral part of the family unit.

Here's the banana bread that we all baked together last weekend. It was delicious!

She's just finished up her first month at school and she seems to really love all of her new friends, her teachers Miss Kristen and Miss Gemma and comes home with new songs and ideas every day. I think Chris and I both treasure our morning walks to her school and four hours later, seeing her bright little face happy from a day of exploring and learning.

Life is good!

Thoughts on motherhood: Toni Morrison

“There was something so valuable about what happened when one became a mother. For me it was the most liberating thing that ever happened…Liberating because the demands that children make are not the demands of a normal 'other.' The children’s demands on me were things that nobody else ever asked me to do. To be a good manager. To have a sense of humor. To deliver something that somebody else could use. And they were not interested in all the things that other people were interested in, like what I was wearing or if I were sensual. Somehow all of the baggage that I had accumulated as a person about what we valuable just fell away. I could not only be me—whatever that was—but somebody actually needed me to be that.” –Toni Morrison

Sammy at 2 months!

Here is Sammy at two months, 11lbs 5oz, 61cm tall. He is quite the little charmer, I think. He'll stare at one of us until we notice him and then he'll break into a big toothless smile. He's also working on his talking skills, "Oooooo" being the most he's able to get out. He's sleeping pretty well with four-hour stretches in the night then waking and nursing and falling back asleep. There have been a few nights where all four of us end up in the bed. The kids sleep well but the parents? Not so much. Oh, well.

This month has been really busy for all of us. I've been getting the next issue of OB off the ground and that means lots of photo shoots, all of which Sammy has attended. Here he is at four weeks in our room at the Commodore in Astoria where we shot a huge feature:

Then here he is among camera equipment at a shoot of wedding desserts in Portland: 

 

Here he is at the "Bohemian Bride" photo shoot in Newberg. 

  

 This was going on behind him:

Here are all of the places he's been in his two months of life: Seaside, Astoria x2, Newberg, and this past weekend, Seventh Mountain Resort in Bend. Whew! This kid gets around! I love having him with me at work just like I did with Olivia. He's a very agreeable baby who is happiest when I've got him strapped to me in the Baby Bjorn.

His sister is also happy with him, although she has a hard time being gentle.

She just wants to love him. She wants to love everyone, actually, I just think she's having a bit of an adjustment sharing the spotlight and her mommy and daddy.

That's about it for now. Two months is terrific.