Amelie: 2 months

At 2 months, Amelie is just beginning to smile and coo-- mostly for Daddy.  After months of sleepless nights and feedings and spit up and diapers, its nice to get a little smile in return:).

She's happy as long as she's being held, so she loves hiking and trips to the office in the Bjorn.  She's not a big fan of her playmat or her buzzy chair because it usually means she's being left on her own.  She gets lots of gooey kisses and hugs from her big brother and often has chocolate in her hair (or whatever else is on Logan's face).  Her nickname is Sweet Pea.

This is what a 10th percentile and a 97th percentile 2 month old baby looks like.  Amelie (8 weeks) and Levi (9 weeks)

Sleep

Sleep is a rare commodity around here these days.  Logan says he is scared of his room, and refuses to sleep in there.  This started after our trip to Ouray, when he got to share a room with Kenny.  Since then he hasn't wanted to sleep alone.  He wants to sleep in our bed, but Mark says no, so we've compromised on Amelie's room.  Logan sleeps in the guest bed in there. I like to think he's protecting his little sister. He's very helpful in an unhelpful sort of way-- if she starts crying, he yells at the top of his lungs to alert us to this fact, making sure to wake her up completely in the process. 

He often wants one of us to lay down with him-- for "just 5 minutes"-- when he's going to sleep.  This is some of our best time together.  He snuggles up so his face is about an inch away, and we talk about when we grow up. When he grows up, he will be Mommy, and I will be Logan.  I will have blue eyes (like Logan).  He will have a mole (like me).  He does not like my mole, and has various suggestions for what we can do about it.  Last night he suggested we should try vacuuming it up. We agreed to try in the morning.

Amelie sleeps for 3 hour stretches, but is often hard to get back down in her crib.  Sometimes around 3 or 4am I end up just getting into bed with Logan and Amelie both.  At that point, with Amelie across my chest and Logan's giant head nuzzled against my neck, I just lie there waiting for morning.  Exhausting as it is, I feel very lucky during those pre-dawn hours.

Bike Race

The USA Pro Cycling Challenge is a week long bike race every summer around Colorado.  Last year we went to the finish in Denver, and discovered a Strider bike course for kids.  That's where Logan first tried a Strider bike, and since then he's become quite the rider. He speeds around our little house taking tight turns around the kitchen island, and he bikes the dirt trails that we hike.  Compared to the other 2 year olds we know, he's pretty impressive.

So, when the bike race came around again this year, and we learned that Strider would be there again with races starting at age 2, we decided we had to go.  We were pretty sure Logan would kill the competition.  It was our first chance to bask in the public spotlight as everyone else saw how awesome our kid was.  We didn't really want to see the pro bike race, and we certainly didn't want to go down to the city on a really hot summer day, but we did... all for the glory that awaited our 2 year old.

We got there and got Logan suited up with a bike, helmet, and race number.  He took some practice laps around the course.  We quickly realized this might not be the easy win we thought it would be.  There was another 2 year old, even smaller than Logan, decked out in a full face helmet and Strider jersey.  His dad had lots of tattoos.  He would be tough competition.

Logan was riding around the course pre-race, and a kid fell over in front of him.  Logan stopped and waited until the kid got up and kept going.  Logan clearly did not have the killer instinct required to win.  Mark had a little talk with him about how the point was to get to the finish as fast as he could, and that he could pass the slower kids.  I was kind of proud of him for waiting for the other kid... it was nice and considerate.  But then I never won too many sports competitions.

It was finally time for the race.  The kids all lined up for one practice lap, before the two actual race laps.   The video is below.  Logan came in 4th out of 9 kids.  He would have been 5th, but one kid got confused and started heading back towards the starting line. He cleanly beat the kid who got distracted by the helicopter. And then he decided he was done-- he didn't ride in the actual race.  He had spotted a bouncy castle, and was over the biking.

It was a respectable performance, but not quite the glorious victory we had imagined.  It was a good lesson for us. First, that our kid is not always going to be the best at everything, even if we see him that way.  And second, that we need to start training for next year!

Broncos

Mark took Logan to a Broncos pre-season game. The highlight was the lightrail ride to the game-- they passed about 30 ding-ding-dings, each one more exciting than the last. Who knew a train ride could be so great? I hear the pre-game show was pretty good too, but by the time the game actually started, Logan was sort of over it. They almost made it to half time.

August

I can't believe its almost the end of summer!  This one has been pretty great since we both got 6 weeks of maternity/ paternity leave.  I'm thinking we might need to do this every summer (just the vacation part, not have a baby every summer).  We're both back to work now-- Mark full time in the office, and me part time, mostly from home.  Amelie's not in day care yet, but I'm able to work pretty well, since she sleeps most of the day.  The one-handed typing (she is inevitably in the other hand) slows me down a bit. I've gone in to the office a couple times, and Amelie has come along in the Baby Bjorn.  She's very well behaved-- just sleeps right through all my meetings.

Some pictures from the past month:

Hanging out with Quin and Lucian

 

Sports candy at Tammy's house

Riding the Georgetown train.  Mark bought Logan a conductor's hat; he chose the pink one.  Pink is his favorite color-- he also scored a pink Dora baseball mitt at a garage sale. All the better for passing onto Amelie!

Hiking to St. Mary's Glacier

Amelie is about 7 weeks old in these:

Logan asked to hold Amelie.  He held her for about 5 seconds and then  was done, so he pushed her off his lap.  We caught her:).

Amelie & Ginny

We all love Amelie, but I think she holds a particularly special place in Ginny's heart. We visit Ginny every week, making sure to dress up (because Ginny loves those frilly dresses!). Life's not always so easy when you're almost 95... good thing we have a baby girl to bring some joy.

Sporticus

Logan's favorite superhero is Sporticus. Here he does his Sporticus moves: