Rhys turns one!

The weekend before Eleanor arrived, we gathered uptown to celebrate Rhys' first birthday!  He turned one the day after EMN arrived.  He loved opening presents and was a good sport as Caroline commandeered his Cozy Coupe.  She loves that car!  Luckily it lives at the Nanas' so she gets to take it out for a spin on weekends.

Rhys also started walking a bit before his birthday.  So at this point he is pretty mobile and beginning to keep up with his bigger cousins.  Here are a few other photos from that weekend!

Life lately, according to some iPhones

We are getting used to having Eleanor around! Three weeks in and we have survived so far. We lean on local family a lot for support and company, as you will see in the below. 

Two weekends ago Kris (Aunt Sissy) came to visit. It's harder than ever to get photos these days so I didn't capture any shots of her and the girls. Sad. But she did let Caroline help bake brownies. Which was a huge hit. 

Caroline got lots of cousin time this week and had a sleepover at Nana's this weekend. Lucky girl! Here are the rest from recent days. 

Oh and Caroline is learning about taking selfless. Hehe. 

The last few days as a family of three

I am a bit behind on posts, so here is a roundup of our activities before Eleanor arrived.

Last weekend we went to the park to ride the train, but due to the weather the train wasn't running.  So we slid.  Oh and by we, I mean Caroline and Johnny did.  I took pictures.  C sure loves to slide!

Caroline is starting to get the point of the playground.  She still would prefer to be pushed in a swing for 20+ minutes at a time, but did run all around and climb and jump.

Here is a photo of the bunny that lives in our backyard.  SO cute.  I am not sure if he is still there though since we've had some yard work done.  I haven't seen the little fella.

Welcome Eleanor!

On the evening of August 5, Eleanor Mary Nichols joined our little family.  She weighed in at 9 lbs (4100 grams) and was 20 1/2 inches (52 centimeters) long.  She was assisted into this world by the lovely midwife Sierra and my super awesome doula Nicole, and of course her father who was another voice of reason when I was being sort of unreasonable.  Eleanor was born into water, just like her sister, but with more drama during the labor (from me) and much less pushing.  Maybe I'll do a birth post with photos in the future since Nicole took a ton of (graphic) photos.

Caroline got to meet Eleanor at the hospital.  She was super interested.  She wanted to take off her blanket and clothes and check out the diaper and hug her and touch her all over.  I love that she loves Sister so much, but our little tornado does need to be watched like a hawk.  She is fast and has a ways to go before she would be considered gentle.

Then we got her home!  She is a snuggle bug.  In the hospital she cried a lot.  Caroline rarely cried.  Even to this day she is a tiny crier.  Eleanor is loud.  More like a normal baby.  But she is a great snuggler.

Got some good pics of Nana B before she left.  Luckily the whole family will come to DC in 5 weeks to celebrate Babs' 60th birthday!

I cannot thank her Nanas enough for all of their support.  My mama stayed with us almost a week and helped entertain big sister Caroline and cooked, did laundry, everything.  Nana Laura and Nana Lu let Caroline sleep over twice this week to let us both bring this baby into the world and to give us an extra few hours to sleep/clean/recover.  And to many friends and family who brought us food, company, entertainment for the toddler and more...you are in our hearts always and we cannot thank you enough.

Keeping cool...at the Potomac Woods pool

Today we joined the Nichols family at the pool uptown.  This pool has essentially the best kid area I've ever seen.  I am so glad that the family has memberships, because we love to swim, and Caroline loves the time with her cousins.

The girls played and splashed.  Caroline is still fearless and will just wander off and jump in.  I am definitely not in a state where I can jump up and chase her all over, so we were very grateful to have had so many helping hands.   O was also practicing her bubble blowing.  She will be a fish next summer.

Rhys played in the water a ton, but I didn't get any shots of him.  Just this one.  So solemn.

Keeping cool, last weekend

Caroline and I had a fun play date last weekend!  We headed to the Nashes to play with Nolan and Ellie, and were joined by the Shens and the newlyweds Amanda and Merv!

Not too many photos from the day, but we sure enjoyed the backyard and the playrooms.  And the company of course.

Ranjit was a HUGE FAN of the spray pool.  Huge fan.  It was awesome.

Then Sunday we joined O and the gang for a visit to the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  There was mostly this...

And some of this (jumping)...

So basically that is it.  At least we weren't in the 190,000 degree heat!

Caroline lately...

Some iPhone photos from the 4th and beyond!

Hotdogs and cookies at the Palisades Picnic. Our new neighborhood park is amazing!

And more celebrating with the Nichols clan. 

All in all a great weekend. 

Now we wait for Caroline's sissy to arrive. 

Airplanes landing

Watching the airplanes land while wearing pajamas and digesting munchkins makes Caroline smile.