Skyler is 2 months

Skyler is doing great. I’m back at work part time but she still comes 2-3 times a day to nurse. I love it. I’ll just hold and kiss her, it is like a boost of mommy love to get my through the next few hours. She is smiling and laughing already. She has a very calm energy about her. She lets a lot of things roll off her. She doesn’t get upset much, maybe when she is tired and fighting it but other than that she is really content. Maybe that is because we don’t leave her alone a lot. She is either in the wrap, our arms or sometimes asleep in bed.
Skyler has a calmness about her. Nothing against Valkyrie but I have a different connection to Skyler, not any better or worse just different. I get different energy from her, interesting how so early on she is such a unique person with her own energies. She is eating well and growing nicely, I don’t know how much she weighs or anything I measure her by how fast she grows out of her outfits. She has already outgrown her newborn clothes and is into 0-3 months stuff.
SIDE NOTE: OK why is it so hard to make kid clothes with extra room in the butt for the cloth diaper! It is so frustrating how they design baby closes to not have any room for the diapers. For example Valkyrie has these cute jeans that are for 24 months, so they are long on her but they are so tight around the butt you can barley button them. With Skyler all her clothes are tight around the bottom some she can’t even fit into (I can’t button the snaps at the bottom of her oneis). Someone really needs to make clothes designed for people who use cloth diapers.
Skyler loves the water just like Valkyrie. We take the girls in the spa a lot and while Valkyrie splashes all around Skyler just lays back and floats. She doesn’t like getting out but she is very happy when she is in the water. Overall Skyler is doing great, growing and she is so beautiful! You really have to meet her.

Huey, our pup celebrated his 3rd birthday on September 9th. He is still very much a puppy. Runs crooked and uncoordinated, has tons of energy and scarfs down his food. Valkyrie has the job of feeding Huey his meals. She gets really upset if you fed him for her. His name is her favorite word. She will walk around saying “Huey, Huey!” and it is adorable in the morning when she goes out to feed him and he is slobbering all over her she will say “HI Huey” as she pours his food into the bowl. Huey is so great with the girls. The other morning both girls were still asleep in bed and we had the monitor on to listen for them and Skyler was cooing and making baby sounds as she was waking up and Huey went right into our room and sat by her side of the bed, as if he was checking on her, as to say “I’m here Skyler.” He lets Valkyire just crawl all over him, sometimes we have to remind her to be nice, she plays a little rough sometimes. Huey just sits there, taking all the abuse and sometimes when he is really tired and he sees her coming into the room he will sigh like “oh here we go” it is so dang funny!

Then there is Valkyrie, oh where to begin with her development.....
I could write a book with all the things Valkyrie can do now.
Valkyrie’s vocabulary is growing everyday. Jeff and I keep saying one day we are going to wake up and she is going to have full sentences. She is trying so hard to talk in full sentences. She knows lots of words. Like: snack, cheese, shoes, water, helicopter (seriously she does) and then like 100 more, but I’m not going to list them all.
She does know “nurse”. When she sees me sit down with Skyler she says “nurse”; sometimes she will get her baby doll and nurse her. So dang cute. What can I say my girls are going to grow up breastfeeding advocates like their mom.
She also has learned the word “mine” I don’t like this one, she will find sometime dangerous or not baby friendly and then declare it “mine” we have had a few battles over this, she is getting better but she keeps me on my toes.
BTW there is no such thing as having your house baby proofed and if you think it is I’ll send over my daughter and she will find where you are in default with in the first few min of being there. I swear I feel like I’ll have to build shelves near the ceiling and put everything in the room up there so she doesn’t get it. She can squeeze her hands into “locked” drawers and cabinets and find something. Like her dad’s deodorant and she thought it was a very large chap stick and tried to eat it. Not kidding....you can’t make this stuff up!!
The fact she is learning more words is scary too. We really have to watch what we say. We have code words for things like “snack” and “scream”. The other day I was listening to some music in the car and the singer said the word “water” and then Valkyrie started saying “water” like yeah that is a good idea I am thirsty right now. She can pick out words when people talk, so if you are around us and Valkyrie is there, seriously watch what you say.
Valkyrie knows almost all her numbers (1-10). You can point to a number and she can say it and she knows 1,2,3 down cold. We use that when she jumps off the step in the spa into the water. When you ask her how old she is she says “twooo” which is right she is closer to 2 than 1.
We have a nighttime routine to help her ease into quiet and sleep mode. We eat dinner, then either play outside or go to a park then come in, take a bath (trust me at this age a bath every night is a must, like how she will take her teriyaki chicken and rice and rub it into her hair, oh how it makes me cringe) then we read books to her and then read 2 books in bed and then it is night night time. It was adorable a few nights ago she brought her baby doll into bed with her and wanted to read to her baby and then she fell asleep with her baby in her arms (like her mommy does).
Valkyrie loves parks, she knows some of them so well that when we start getting close she will yell and say “slide, walk walk” She is a little dare devil, she always finds the highest, fastest, tallest toys and wants to play on those. She has had her share of bumps and falls but I think I get more freaked out then she does. She is very sociable and plays with all the kids, regardless of their age. I love that about her, how she is so friendly. She greets everyone with a big smile.

Jeff and I are doing well. Jeff is enjoying being home with the girls and working on becoming a motorcycle instructor. He has found a hobby and really enjoys riding, tinkering and teaching about bikes. I support it, he supports me in my hobbies and dreams and plus we can’t afford to fly right now which is a hobby we both enjoy so the least we can do is support each others individual hobbies.
I have been trying to get back in shape and doing my part to be green by biking to work. I ride to work, home for lunch, back to work and home for the day. On average I ride about 5-10 miles not much but it is uphill both ways, no joke!
We are still trying to get the grandparents to move closer. (both sets) Oregon is a great place to live and we are hoping that maybe someday soon they would consider it as home to them as well. We try to use the granddaughters as carrots on a sting dangling above them hoping to convince them to move closer. Overall the family is doing great, looking forward to the fall season.

Okay I better stop, like I said I could write a book, and this is starting to look like one. Man, my quick updates have turned into full on pages. I should warn people “Read this if you have 30min to kill”