Hellobee

So here’s the thing about having two kids: It’s hard. Mr. Ice Cream and I basically laughed then cried the first night home with Zoe when she started crying at 2 am followed 5 minutes later by Max waking up and crying. Needless to say we were all sleep deprived that first week, especially Max. Luckily Max has amazing teachers at school who understood how hard it is to have a new sibling around and were extra loving with him.

Being at home with Zoe has been so special. Since we are not planning on having any more kids, I’ve been soaking up our one on one time together. With Max, we made the rookie mistake of putting together a to-do list of home projects we wanted to get done (most of which did not get done). This time around we have just been focusing on relaxing and hanging with Zoe.

We’ve been living with an active toddler for so long, we forgot how much a newborn sleeps and how little they do. The challenge comes on the weekends when we have two kids to entertain and feed. We’ve more or less adopted a man-to-man defense where Mr. Ice Cream and I trade off caring for one child at a time. Other days we love bringing Zoe along with us to the park, where she happily sleeps in her stroller while Max runs around. But if we thought getting out of the house with 1 kit was tough, 2 kids is so much crazier! It takes roughly 4 times as long to get out the door and we only stay out for half that time. Please tell me it get’s easier! Here are some stats from Zoe’s first month.

Zoe stats

Zoe took a while to get back to birth weight, but now she is eating like a champ.

Weight:

8 lbs 11 oz

Height:

21″

Head circumference:

14.5″

Memorable moments:

We are thankful that Zoe can literally sleep through anything, including Max enthusiastically bringing toys right up to her face while she is sleeping and loudly saying “Look Zoe!”

I’m not sure if this is memorable, but at one point Mr. Ice Cream and I did a quick count of how many pictures we took of Max his first month. It was hilarious how many more pictures we had of Max his first month than we do of Zoe.

Zoe has been a somewhat embarrassingly loud grunter starting from day one. We will be in the line at Target and she will start grunting and waving her arms and legs.

Memorable interactions with Max:

One of our biggest concerns with bringing a new baby into our home was how that would affect Max, but so far he has been great. Here are a few ways memorable interactions between Max and Zoe:

• He loves helping us change her diaper.
• As soon as he gets home from school he always asks, “where is my baby sister.”
• When Zoe cries, Max tells us “Mama, pick her up.”
• One time when my mom was talking to Zoe, Max said “Ama, she doesn’t talk yet.”
• Before Max goes to bed he always has to give Zoe a kiss.
• He covers her with his favorite blanket (although sometimes he plops the blanket right on her face).
• A few times Max has told us “I don’t think Zoe wants to go to the playground, she can stay here.”

Here is one of my favorite pictures from when Zoe was born:

Max and Zoe!