Kulia has turned into the most perfect baby. I know I shouldn’t say this for fear of jinxing myself but dang, this kid rocks!

First off, she is a great night sleeper. She is consistantly sleeping from 8pm until 4am and she is only 10 weeks old!!! I can’t believe my luck. It is heavenly.

Second, she has found her thumb. Instead of crying herself to sleep for naps, she just pops in her little thumb and sucks away until she drifts off to dreamland. No crying. Just violent thumb sucking. It’s awesome.

Finally, she has figured out how to take a bottle. My mom has been working with her for the last two weeks. Her first attempt involved lots of gagging and crying but she persisted. Today, we had success and baby sister sucked down two ounces without much of a fuss. I’m overjoyed. I can see a little bit of freedom for me peeking around the corner now. My mom is only here one more day so I’m going to have her do as many bottles as possible with Kulia in the hopes that she’ll learn and remeber how they work.

I bought a ton of baby books when Leina was a wee mcnugget. Most of them had chapters devoted to different baby personalities. There was the touchy baby, the spirited, baby, and the grumpy baby. However, the first section was usually devoted to the easy, textbook, or angel baby. Since this was clearly not Leina, I skipped these chapters and secretly wondered if said “easy” baby even existed. Well, she does and her name is Kulia. Baby sister is all quick smiles, soft coos, and mild manners. It’s so easy to read her signals for hunger, boredom, or tiredness. I suppose I’m much wiser having survived Leina but I also believe that alot of the ease arises from Kulia’s sweet temperment. I couldn’t ask for a better second child.

I’m sure after I post this, Kulia will turn into some sort of cranky colic baby but I’m going to risk it. No recycle bins for this kid. She’s sweeter than apple pie and oh so kissable. I’m one lucky mommy.

Antie Suzy and cousin Sammy arrived safe and sound. When Leina came downstairs from her nap and saw them in our living room, she was so happy she could not speak. All she could do that stand frozen in place, giddy with joy, clapping her hands, bouncing and grinning from ear to ear.

It makes me a little sad to see Leina and Sammy play because it is clear that these two would be the ultimate best friends if we lived closer together. They copy eachother, play chase, swing together, and splash in the wading pool. Sure, there are a few tiffs over sharing and even a punch or two is thrown but it quickly blows over and they are back together again exploring the world. They are such a study in opposites. Leina, so articulate and bossy; Sammy, so dexterous and fearless. Put them together and they entertain eachother and you. Simply adorable.

And Kulia. Sweet, mild tempered Kulia. She just sits in her little chair and smiles and goos at whoever is passing by. Sammy seems to have no problem watching his mom hold another baby so Suzy is getting lots of chubba chubba time with the little one. Auntie can’t get enough of her sweet smiles and miles and miles of chubbs.

There is nothing like family. Nothing.

I can’t believe it’s been 2 months already. It seems like just yesterday we brought the little McNugget home. She was so small and snuggly it was unreal. I just couldn’t remember Leina being that small. It was definitely a case of baby-nesia.

Now she’s a giant! She reminds me of a little panda bear so I can’t help thinking of her as the “panda-baby” every time I pick her up.

But judge for yourself:

Crazy huh? Now, in just 2 months, she’s smiling, laughing, giggling and goo-gooing (as opposed to googling which I’m sure she’ll do by age 3).

She just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. At this rate she’ll be over 100 lbs at age 2. I hope Huggies go up to size 50.

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 has been brought to my attention that there are 2 people arriving in just a few days to see us (really they want to see Kulia and Leina). And while we have a counter dedicated to Tutu – proclaiming to the world the esteem, love and excitement we are feeling for the visit of that wonderful women – we did not have one for Papa. Aka:

Silly Papa
Cold Papa
On an airplane Papa?
Watch me Papa!!!
Papa of Papa and Tutu

Let me categorically state that we are just as excited for Papa’s visit. We know he is going to have a blast playing with his rascally oldest granddaughter as well as be overjoyed at finally seeing his latest granddaughter.

I know Tutu know’s what she’s getting herself into. I just hope Papa does too…

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.