Today was Kulia’s two month checkup. Yes, that’s right, she is already two months old. Amazing.

Her doctor confirmed what we already knew. Namely, she is one fat little baby. In fact, she weights in at 14lbs, 1oz which places her into the 97th percentile for weight. She is 75th% for length and 50th% for head size so she’s a fat, long kid. But one look at her chubba-chubba face and you can pretty much guess she’s a chunker.

Tutu has been ohhhing and ahhhing over her and basically fullfilling her grandmotherly duties of spoiling both her granddaughters. She has begun offering Kulia a bottle but so far we have had no luck. The kid wants nothing to do with it. But Tutu will persist for her stay here and hopefully we can convince baby sister to take a bottle in the next week ’cause mommy needs to leave the house some day!

We are now in the countdown until Auntie Suzy and Sammy arrive. I am so excited for Leina to have Sammy around to play with. They are totally Bam Bam and Pebbles togther and I’m sure they are going to LOVE playing with eachother.

Poor baby girl is sleeping off her multiple shots in the leg. I sure hope she have a mild reaction to the vaccines. If not, I have the baby Tylenol all prepped and ready to dose her up when she wakes. My sweet fat, fat, fat baby girl!

It’s the end of an era here in the McLaughlin house.

The kitties are gone.

Yes, that’s right, the girls have found a new home.

The cats have been on their last life for a while now. The random crying at 5am, the bringing of dead and live mice into the house, and all the cat hair. But last week, we hit a new low. Not only did they manage to bring in a live snake that hide under Kulia’s carseat, we also discovered a large racoon in our garage eating the cat food. The racoon was the last straw. I love the girls, I really do, but racoons are mean and I just couldn’t get the image of one attacking Leina out of my head. So Kevin posted an ad in the paper and a very nice couple came by yesterday to take a look at the cats. They were smitten and decided to take them home. We told them if it didn’t work to call us back but I have a feeling they are gone for good.

So last night, after the 3am nursing, I found myself wondering about my cats. They were in a strange house with strange people. They were probably firmly entrenched under the bed and wondering what was going on. Well girls, I hope you like you new home. I know our house is a little quieter without you.

Leina is hilarious right now.

Tonight we were hanging outside. Baby sister was catnapping in the swing and we had the sprinkler going. Leina was down to her diaper and running amuck. She charged up to me and said….”mommy want a ‘cano?”

“Sure!” I replied.

“OK mommy,” Leina said and ran toward her little playhouse. “Wait mommy! Leina will get you an americano!”

She ran back a moment later with a little cup and handed it to me then turned to Kevin and asked, “Daddy want a mocha?”

I find myself asking her “who taught you that” quite often as she amazes me with all her new tricks. The conversation goes something like this…

“Watch mommy. Me skipping!” Leina exclaimed and began doing a strange shuffle step across the room.

“Who taught you to skip?” I asked my little munchkin.

Leina paused, placed her index finger on her lower lip and tilted her head to one side. “Ummmmmmmm Tutu!” she exclaimed and resumed her skipping.

It seems this is her stock answer because tonight Kevin asked her in all seriousness… “Leina, who taught you calculus?”

“Ummmmm Tutu!” she exclaimed.

Sometimes she throws us a curve ball just to keep us on our feet. At dinner, when asked who taught her to be silly, her answer was Uncle Dan. I sense there might be a bit of truth behind that one. I love asking her open ended questions because I have absolutely no idea what she’s going to say. It is, by far, my favorite game to play.

This kid is an absolute riot!

Kulia is so incredibly cute right now. Her chubba-chubba checks and big owl eyes. She loves to streeeeeach her little arms above her head after she wakes up and is beginning to coo with her sweet little voice. She is, quite simply, adorable.

She is also a handful. In fact, she broke her father today. Having learned from Leina, Kulia is already on a schedule. Wake up, nurse, awake time, then sleep. This make life much easier for all. So after a nursing, I packed up Leina and a shopping list and headed to the store leaving baby sister with her father to enjoy. He played with her and then, when she got sleep, attempted to put her down for a nap. Attempted being the key word.

When Leina and I returned, we found an exhausted father and a small child who had steadfastly refused to go to sleep. Kevin was broken. He had resolved that she was just going to have to cry and learn to sleep. And then, after a nice nursing, he held her little warm body in his arms, watched as a gummy little grin broke across her face, and Kevin….mended.

It was kind of fun to watch because I break and mend several time a day. At the end of an exhausting battle to get her to sleep, I too vow that I’m just going to let her cry. But after I calm down and hold her sweet little self in my arms, I find I have a little more patience and stamina than I thought. And once again I’m ready to do battle over napping. I don’t why is has to be so hard but I guess it’s why she’s so cute. Good thing too.

Eventually she will have to learn to fall asleep on her own and there will be much protest crying but for now we are helping her along with as much snuggling and holding and rocking and cuddling as possible. Sweet baby sister. I had forgotten what it felt like to fall in love with your child but it’s happening again. And it’s wonderful.

Poor Kulia.

She has caught another cold. Leina was three months before she had her first stuffy nose but poor baby sister is on her second in only 5 weeks. Leina brings it home and Kulia suffers through it. As if it isn’t hard enough being a newborn now she can’t breathe! It seems to be worse at night because she’s waking every 45 minutes to an hour crying and totally stopped up. This makes for a very crabby child and mother. Her last cold took her three weeks to kick. I can only hope this one passes through quicker but it doesn’t look good.

Poor baby sister.

I came downstairs today pretty cocky. I had survived Thursday on my own all day long and no harm had befallen either of my girls. One whole day, thank you very much. So today, I was riding my win.

“Good morning sweetie!” I lilted and bent to kiss my big girl’s forhead.

“Mommy, you smell.” Leina said solemnly.

“I smell?” I replied. “What does momma smell like?” I was expecting her to say “sweet” or “pretty” or maybe even “like a flower.”

“Stinky,” Kevin pipped in.

“Stinky,” Leina parroted. “Momma smells stinky.”

So all day today, Leina would run up to me, give me a sniff and proclaim, “momma smells stinky!”

Yes, but I survived kiddo! Two days without help and I didn’t place either child into the recycle bin even though it was, technically, recycling day. Ha! Sleep, showering, eating leisurely, who needs that stuff. Not me! Oh no, I’m a mommy!