Two Cute Babies

It's been a while since I've posted some comparison pictures of Lucas and Paige.  They looked so similar when they were newborns, but as Paige has gotten a little older I think she has started looking way different than Lucas did. Probably the biggest difference is the hair.  It's nice that she has hair, but it's pretty mangy and looks ridiculous.  Every once in a while I think she kinda looks like me. I'll have to dig up some of my baby pictures to compare.  In the mean time enjoy some of Lucas and Paige.  I tried to recreate the first one by having her wear the same onesie.

Paige has been able to roll over for over a month now, but she didn't really care too much about it until 2 weeks ago.  Now she rolls all over the place and has even started scooting a little bit.  She loves to be on her tummy lately, and usually when we put her on her back, she rolls right over.  If you look closely you'll see that Lucas and Paige both have scratches on their noses in pretty much the same spot.  I guess that's just what babies this age do.

She has also started wanting to sleep on her tummy. I used to try to get her to sleep on her tummy for naps, cause I was worried about her head getting too flat, but she never wanted anything to do with it.  Then all of a sudden last Saturday she decided she would only sleep on her tummy.  As soon as you put her down, even if she's asleep, she will roll right over.  It's pretty funny.  She gets her little knees tucked up underneath her sometimes and sticks her butt in the air.  I LOVE it!

Today was such a beautiful day.  It was 65 degrees and sunny.  This is why I love California.  We took a little trip to the park.  Lucas was this same age his first time being in a swing at the park.

Paige thought it was pretty fun.  Especially when Lucas pushed her.

This picture is hilarious.  I'm not sure why she was making this face, because she loved going down the slide with Lucas.  I tried to retake the picture, but then another kid showed up at the park and Lucas wanted to go play with him instead.  Oh well.  Poor Paige will be stuck with this picture forever.

Preschool

I've been busy these last few weeks with preschool.  First I was the helper mom, and then this week and last week I've been teaching.  It was nice sending Lucas off to preschool last year without having to do anything.  They put off me having to help since I'd just had a baby, but now it's my turn to help out.  I spent a lot of time planning for the first day.  It was about as hard as I thought it would be.  And that is saying something because I usually go overboard with things in my head.  But so far it hasn't been too bad and the kids are pretty well behaved and we have a good time. They are so smart!

I don't have a lot of time to take pictues since we don't really stop at all during the two hours the kids are here, but I did snap a few the first day.  We were doing water colors.  The kids loved it.

 And we made elephant masks.

 Lucas modeled his after everyone left.

I just have one more day to teach and then I'll be done for a few weeks.  I can't wait. 

After preschool today Lucas, Paige, and I went for a walk.  We decided Paige was big enough for a ride in the stroller.  Can you believe it?!

 Lucas was such a good big brother and pushed Paige around.  I think she liked being able to see everything.

 And this is just a random picture I found on the camera.  Lucas was letting Paige play with his toys.  He basically piled everything he could find on top of her.  I don't know why she puts up with him.

4 Months

I couldn't decide what outfit to do her picture in this month.  Then when I was getting her dressed I saw those chunky thighs and I just had to do the picture in just a onesie. 

4 Months seems like such a huge milestone to me.  I'm not sure why but that jump from 3 months to 4 seems to make the difference between newborn baby, and just baby.  Paige was smiling and laughing by 3 months, but now she seems to have developed such a cute little personality.  She's very friendly and smiley all the time.  She has discovered the mirror and loves to look at herself and smile.  She has also really started to get interested in playing with toys.  This little ball is her favorite.

She just likes it because it's easy for her to hold on to.  She'll take pretty much anything she can shove in her mouth and suck on, though.  This girl has gotten SUPER drooly.  Lucas was not a drooler so this is new territory for us.  It's really not too big a deal, though, it just means I get to change her into a cute new outfit a couple times a day.

Another recent milestone is that she has found her hands and feet.  She loves to eat her hands, and just the other day she figured out how to grab her feet.  She's not flexible enough to eat them, but I give her another week and she'll be munching on those too.  This is like my absolute favorite baby pose ever.  She just looks so cute!

Alcatraz

One of the days that we were with my family this Christmas a bunch of us went to Alcatraz.  Ryan and I had never been and we were really excited.  We left Lucas with his grandma and cousins, but we brought Paige along with us.  It was a chilly day and I was worried about Paige getting cold.  I strapped her to me with the Moby wrap, then wrapped a blanket around her, and then zipped up a coat around both of us.  She was warm and toasty, and she kept me warm and toasty.  I think we were the only people that weren't cold.

People thought she was pretty cute peaking out of my coat... yup, she was!

The island was actually really pretty, and a lot of the old buildings were cool looking too.  Here's some pictures in no particular order.

The prison yard...

A view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the island...

The tour was pretty interesting... and also kinda scary.  I'm sure glad I've never been sent to prison before, especially to Alcatraz.

Paige was a little trooper, she did great the whole time.  After the tour we all went back to the pier and got some clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls.  Delicious!

Christmas

This year we spent Christmas with my family at a rental house in Moss Beach.  The morning before we left we opened presents with our own little family.  The big thing on the side was one of Lucas's and Paige's presents.  It was too big to wrap so we just threw a blanket over it.

Opening presents...

Opening the big present from grandma and grandpa George.

And you always have to take a pj's picture in front of the tree.

The first day we spent with my family we actually went to Alcatraz.  I'll post those pictures later.  We had a big group and it was a lot of fun.  About half of the time we spent at the rental house it was pouring rain.  The other half of the time when it was sunny, everyone threw on their shoes and jackets and spent as much time at the beach as possible before it started raining again.  This day we were there during low tide and the tide pools were really cool.

Lucas found a fun rock to climb on.

Checking out a starfish in one of the tide pools.

Lucas wanted to touch everything, but when he touched this sea anemone, it started to close around his finger.

It scared the crap out of him.  You  can't really tell in this picture but he had just pulled his hand back really quick and had a freaked out look on his face.

The beach was really pretty considering how chilly it was outside.

The sea lions came to bask in the sun.  Ryan walked out pretty far in the tide pools to get pictures of the sea lions and while he was out there, a big wave came from behind and soaked him.  It was pretty hilarious.  He held the camera up so it wouldn't get wet, but everything else got drenched.

When the weather was rainy, we had fun staying inside eating yummy food, decorating cookies...

....reading Christmas stories....

... cuddling with babies...

...and attacking Uncle Mark with light sabers...

Then Christmas morning came.

We all took turns handing out presents to the siblings and families we had.

And then we had presents and stockings from my parents too.

It took a while to open presents for 30 people.  We had to take a break halfway through for breakfast.  Nate made Kneaders french toast and it was AMAZING!  Then we had one last day for the kids to play together and pack up before we had to go.  We had a great Christmas spending time with family!

Thanks Mom and Dad for renting the house for all of us to stay in, and for cleaning it all up afterwards.