I get all sorts of comments for who Celia looks like. Jordi, me, Josie. Good to know it’s all in the family still. But here’s some similar expressions.

Today’s project was to capture what it’s like when they’re home. There’s several aspects to a day with Josie and Celia, the constant need for someone to eat, the chores, and the playtime. Here’s a few glimpses. One of Josie’s jobs when I can remember is to put the recycling in bags. The problem is that sometimes she finds treasures in there that she won’t give up which drives me nuts, because I had put them there so they’d go out of the house! It also makes disposing of some of her over-copious art work more challenging because I can’t put it in the recycling bin.

She’s also always involved in our chores whenever she can manage. Here is a photo of her, in the middle of Jordi changing our sheets, where she is moaning ‘ugh my appendix, take my appendix out’. Josie’s been a big fan of Madeline lately and she has her appendix removed. She’s of course messing up the bed that Jordi just worked so hard on. Note the second born doesn’t manage to have two socks on.

And finally, another baby view of how the world looks as your big sister just does not stop moving. Ever.

Today’s assignment was to take a picture of how things are when they’re gone. I wanted to capture how things are at night around here when all is calm, the floor is cleaned up, and the cats come out to play. In this case, Jordi came out to play too with his video games. I played some more with lighting and my very compliant subject Ezzy. These rooms are very dark. I had the lights down very low as they normally at night are because I’m still enjoying nursing Celia before bed on the couch and getting some TV time in for myself.

Ezzy sat still for these 6-13 second long exposures (using the remote trigger). Despite us calling her over to visit for some of them. Then we threw her a toy and got some more interest.

Then Jordi came over for some playtime of his own.

Today’s photo is one of us going out and about. The only place we went yesterday was to Together in Motion for our weekly playgroup with other mom’s of two kids. The idea was for someone else to snap the photo with the camera on auto, so my friend Lisa snapped the photo for us. Josie was again not in a cooperative mood. Celia was enjoying her time hanging out on my back for the first time and eventually fell asleep.

Today Celia is four months old and today she rolled over for the first time! To make sure it wasn’t a fluke, I put her back, and she did it again! Then I did it again and she rolled again. Josie was unimpressed, “I can roll over?!” She rolled a third time for me so I got the camera set up to take a video. Then she just lay on her tummy and cried. Poor girl. She wouldn’t do it for daddy again later either.

Yesterday we took her into the doc and all is well. She’s been growing like a weed and is now 14 lbs 6 oz (64%), a full pound bigger than Josie was at this age and 25.75 inches long (96%), a quarter inch longer. She’s about to grow out of the infant sized prefolds and is much happier in the larger sized prefolds or our thirsties all in one diapers I had with Josie. They held a major poop last night so I’m comfortable that they aren’t too big.

She’s started giving me super sweet open mouth baby kisses on my face! Sometimes literally trying to suck my face.

She’s demanding more attention and more upright time. She can sit with some support for a long time, and with no support for 30 seconds or so a few times. Then she gets tired and needs some help standing or sitting. She’s definitely on the fast track for getting mobile too, she tries to move her legs already. She likes to look at books a lot and play with her little toys. Most of all she loves other people, we took her to sing-a-long today and she just loved it. Every time we take her to a place with a lot of people she gets very vocal for the rest of the day telling us all about it.

Her sleep is ok at night for a baby. During the day she’s the poor second kid, so she gets jerked around all day doing whatever Josie and I want to do. She gets one good nap during Josie’s quiet time in the afternoon, but today that was only a whopping 1 hr long. I think she’s a little out of sorts with her cold and vaccinations yesterday.

Here she is with her sister, who can’t seem to get enough photos taken of her despite the fact that I’m focusing on her the entire month every day! Celia’s feet can touch the bottom well in this bouncy seat now too, couldn’t do that a week ago!

Well we’ve certainly done a lot of staying in this winter with the huge piles of snow. This past week we’ve done even more because we’ve all been sick. I was not in the mood to take a close color picture of myself today with all the runny nose and so I set up a silhouette shot for us all. Josie was reading us the story of Madeline for the third time. It’s a big help when she will read her sister a story. Celia is very interested these days and wants to grab and drool on Josie and the book.

I also really liked this shot I got of Josie alone.

Josie, like many kids, has become a bit of a nudist. So the book was a useful prop for our photography today.

Today’s assignment was a self-portrait which is tough because I only get a short time to click the controller to take a picture before Josie demands her turn. Plus we took Celia into the doc this morning and Jordi had to work late so we didn’t have much time. Wish we had more natural light but the day keeps getting away from us and someone always needs a diaper or a trip to the bathroom or some food. Plus with our houses being so close to the neighbors and the 100+ year old tree out front, we don’t get as much light in the winter with the sun low in the sky. I’ll have to focus on finding more sources of natural light in our house that make nice lines and clean backgrounds. The windows need to be cleaned too, I’ll do that once winter is over.

Forgot my cardinal rule of removing the bib before photos. Here’s another attempt I tried earlier in the day, but the pictures were mostly aimed too high and my natural light wasn’t enough.

Oh no, tomorrow is another photo of the two of us together using a timer. Yikes.

Can’t believe I’m halfway through! I am enjoying this project even if some days, like today, Josie was choosing not to be particularly cooperative. I’m hopeful with some nice warmer weather coming our way I might be able to take some prettier shots outside.

Today’s assignment was to get a kiss. Josie was camera shy, but I got her and my mom reading and snuggling on the couch.

Tomorrows assignment is a self-portrait. Here’s hoping I get to take a shower tomorrow morning.

We do cloth diapers. We do not have blow outs. Even though Celia generally only poops once every 4-5 days currently. Except when we travel and use disposable. Major diaper fail.

It’s even funnier because Jordi was wearing his ‘Dad since 2008’ shirt. It also was funny because I was out getting breakfast when it happened and I came back to find Jordi holding Celia, her clothes, his hands, and his clothes all covered with poop and him trying to direct three children, one age 5, two age 2, how to help him. Had to wash the shirt three times to get it clean.

To get away from the winter and have some quality time with our friends and neighbors we went to the Cape Codder Resort on Cape Cod the weekend before last. We first went two years ago for our anniversary. Last year we invited Christina, Chanh, Zach and Ethan and had another great time. This year we all drove down on a Friday and had a really bad trip for some reason, traffic had just been awful around Boston with the snowstorms and despite leaving at 2:30 we sat in a ton of traffic until we got far south of Boston, not arriving until after 5pm. This year we had one extra family member, or at least one more family body as I was actually just barely pregnant at that point last year.

I wonder how old Celia will be when she wonders why she doesn’t have a doggy like the rest of the kids? It was a great weekend away. We spent a fair amount of time in the pool but each of the kids at various times just weren’t feeling it and ended up sitting in chairs while the rest of us enjoyed the water. Josie was enthusiastic at first and then her interest dwindled each time. Hopefully she’ll be more excited next year. Celia liked the water fair enough and tolerated us bringing her in and out and getting splashed.

We had some nice meals and rode the merry go round at the Cape Cod Mall a few times. Most importantly we got a little grown up time to whisper to ourselves while the kids slept and we played a board game at night. We had ice cream sundae’s, fruity blended drinks, and yummy fried food (not all in one meal) to make it all really feel like a vacation. We stopped by the beach on the way home and got a few pictures that I’ve already published, and capped it off with lunch on the way home at Panera, Josie’s favorite. On the way back through Boston we actually hopped off 93 and went to the aquarium quickly since we have a membership now. Both girls really enjoyed it and we liked having an easy quick visit without the extra effort of schlepping downtown. A rare moment of spontaneity from this planner!

Next year we need to remember to bring smore’s supplies for the nightly bonfire.