Sibling Love

Now that Mealea is crawling she loves to follow Sawyer everywhere. She watches everything he does, and plays with all his favorite toys. Sawyer gets jealous and pulls the toys away, but I remind him to share and he usually gives it back (even though its really hard for him). As hard as it can be having two kids, I love it more than anything. I love to watch them interact together. I can tell they love each other, and that makes me so happy! Sawyer will ask me "where's baby?" when he can't find her. Sometimes he answers his own question with "baby night night".

Before she was born, I was worried that Sawyer would be jealous of her, or act out because he's not getting as much attention. I worried for months, researching ways to help a toddler adjust to a new baby. Sawyer was only 18 months when Mealea was born, still a baby himself. I felt bad that he didn't have more time with just Mom and Dad before a new sibling came. But then I realized every baby after the first doesn't get that time anyway. After Mealea was born, I was pleasantly surprised when Sawyer showed no jealousy at all. He even showed a little interest in her and wanted to pat her head and give her a binky, bottle and blankets. We taught him to be soft and nice to her so she didn't get hurt. We were also surprised to find he was just naturally careful around her as to not hurt her. Since then he has grown to love her more. Once when Mealea was about a month old she was in her car seat in the living room screaming. Sawyer ran over and paced the floor looking a little worried and anxious. He scanned the area and found her binky and put it in her mouth (upside down so it fell out). Then he found her blanket and gently put it over her body careful to keep her face free. That was one of the most beautiful moments I've ever seen. I have caught him numerous times since then watching how I comfort her and trying it out. He is such a sweet boy. I was worried for nothing ( I KNOW SAMONG...)

Mealea also loves her brother. When I get her out of her crib from a nap or in the morning Sawyer is usually with me. Her eyes burst with joy, love and excitement when she sees him. Her arms fly, her legs kick and she squeals in delight. As soon as I put her down, she grabs his head and licks it (gives kisses). I LOVE IT!

I wanted another boy because since they were close in age I thought it would be fun to have little best friends playing and laughing together. I have that now with a little boy and a little girl, its perfect.



Having two kids is an adventure, but it comes with some work. The past week 1/2, two weeks has been rough. Mealea cut her first tooth and it took a week just to pop up completely. It's still tiny, but it's done coming through the gums. A week of her crying all the time, not eating very good and just not being herself. That may not be that long, but it's long to me because all of Sawyer's teeth popped up in two days time. He was a little fussy, but back to normal in no time. Then she had a huge reaction when we fed her bananas and banana/apple/strawberry baby food on Monday. Her rash was so bad she stayed up all night (until 3:30 am) crying and scratching. The next two days she cried most of the day unless I held her. Her rash is getting better but it takes a while. Samong gets home from work Mon-thurs between 8-9pm right now so I am slowing going mad. He interview's for a new job on Tuesday, we really need this job. It's a big pay raise plus he will be home at a normal time.

Little Helper

Sawyer likes to "help" out around the house. Like any kid (maybe any kid X 10) he loves to be hands on. I love the joy in his face as he learns something new, or thinks he's the biggest boy in the world. He has always been so determined. He crawled at 6 months, walked at 10, and could walk up the down the stairs like a big boy standing up at 18 months. He's all boy...

Here is is at Home Depot with daddy using a tape measure

He also likes to help with the dishes

He even wants to help put Mealea "night night" (except that's his bed)

Here he is vacuuming the house, he is so cute:)

Father/Daughter Love

Samong has had a special bond with his daughter from the moment she was born. I've never seen him more in love..it's the truth. I love that our second child is a girl, so now we can enjoy having one of each for a while. She loves her daddy very much. She recently started doing some hyperventilation thing when she see's him. Her face is priceless! She knows how to get what she wants from him already. She'll be playing happily on the floor with her toys, completely content... Until Samong walks in the room and she whines and begs for him to pick her up. I can't wait to see what happens when she's old enough to date!

Most people say Mealea looks like Samong......everyone else hasn't met her!

Daddy's little girl

Baby Blessing & A Wedding

We blessed Mealea on December 5th when she was two months old. Samong blessed her in Cambodian like he did with Sawyer. I am always so scared they will scream during the blessing into the microphone, but they haven't so far. I'm also worried that for the short time they wear an all white expensive outfit they will blow out (perhaps while all the men hold them during the blessing). My kids have always been good at pooping and blowing out. But so far so good:) This was the best picture I could get of them together, I like that they are doing the same hand gesture here.

I'm sure if I kept trying I could have gotten a better picture, but I was anxious to get these clothes off and feed them

I love this picture of Mealea, she loves to stick her tongue out

I have the cutest kids in the world :)

My brother Nicholas got married on December 17th in Idaho Falls. This is him with his wife Lindsey at the luncheon. 

This is Mealea in the dress she wore for Nick's wedding, she looked so cute in it. My sister Amanda took this picture, I think Mealea was a little nervous because I wasn't in the room.

Mealea playing with Daddy at Nick and Lindsey's reception

Boston

We went to Boston at the end of January to visit Samong's family for one week. Sawyer wasn't two yet so he and Mealea were free. Samong got to fill up on his favorite foods every day, and see his family that he doesn't get too often since flights are expensive. It was hard traveling with a 3 month old and a 22 month old, but it was worth it.
We went to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA home of the New England Patriots. We dressed Sawyer in his Patriots Jersey and toured around The Hall and Patriot Place. The Hall is a "museum" that takes guests through Patriots and New England football history. Its modern, innovative, and interactive for all ages. It was really fun, I'm glad we went.

Sawyer in the huddle, these models are life size built to scale of the actual players
He didn't like it very much, every picture we have is of him running out of the huddle.

                         We couldn't resist putting Mealea in the Patriots helmet:)

                                              Posing in the locker room

Sawyer didn't appreciate the experience as much as the rest of us. But something tells me he will next time we bring him.

We ran into Elmo on one of our walks, so we took a picture.

We had so much fun on our trip. I love that Samong is from Boston and it will always be a big part of his life. I hope it will be just as a big part of our kid's life as well. Boston is such an amazing city rich with history and culture. Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States and retains a lot of it's historical feel. I love history, and everything about this town. I also like the what all the colleges and Universities bring to the area. I look forward to future trips when our children are older so they (and we) can enjoy it more. We still have so much to see!

Pudding Painting

I copied this idea from my friend Jessica's blog. She did a post with her son painting in the tub with pudding. All you do is make vanilla pudding, separate it in different bowls and dye them different colors with food coloring. Then you strip them down to their diaper and set them loose in the tub. They can go as crazy as they like, and even eat some. And clean up is easy, that's my favorite part!


At first he didn't like it very much

We started painting with him to get him started, and to show him it wasn't scary

It didn't take long for him to start to enjoy it

Mealea is Born!

I know this is kinda late, but I'm using this as my journal, I don't want to forget anything. I haven't written down her birth story. I'll probably be playing catch up for a while. 7 1/2 months ago the most beautiful little girl came into our family. Two days after my 25th birthday, she was the best birthday present ever. Sawyer was 10 months old when I got pregnant with Mealea. We were not trying to get pregnant again so soon, so that was a big surprise. It was pretty scary, actually pretty much the whole 9 months. But as soon as she was born we fell in love and could not ask for more perfect children and family.

Mealea was another scheduled induction because my Dr. was leaving for surgery. It was almost one week before my due date, so I was pretty happy. We were scheduled at 9 A.M. Monday October 3rd. I was Group B Strep positive so they had to administer two doses of antibiotics about 4 hours apart before she was born. I was contracting regularly but it wasn't hurting near as bad as I did with Sawyer. As soon as they started to hurt I got the epidural. The guy took forever and had me lie on my side curled up as tight as I could. It hurt really bad, and was the most uncomfortable I'd ever been. Mealea hated it too, she was squirming like crazy. It only worked on half my body, so he had to do it again. When he was FINALLY finished they checked me and I was at a 6. The next 8 minutes I waited for the epidural to kick in and right as they started to take away the pain I felt eminence pain and pressure. It was like nothing I'd ever felt before, it felt like...well exactly what it was, a huge baby torpedoing out of my body. I never felt that with Sawyer, he took 12 hours to come, and I was really really numb the whole time. I kept saying something's wrong, something hurts! The nurse checked me and I was at a 10 and the baby was on her way out. I went from 6 to 10 in 8 minutes. It hadn't been 4 hours yet so I never got the 2nd dose of antibiotics. They tried to keep the baby in ( and keep me from pushing) as they administered the last dose of antibiotics. They put it in through my IV really fast and it was SO PAINFUL. There is a reason they let it drip in slowly because when they do it fast it feels like your arm is on fire while being shredded with knives. They had no choice, the baby was coming. It was pretty intense trying to stop from pushing while the baby was pushing her way down anyway. When they were done with the antibiotics they let me push and it only took two pushes, pretty easy, and she was out!
She was beautiful and perfect:) While they were cleaning her up and sewing me up I started to feel really weird. The only way I can describe it was that I was slowly dying. The Dr. noticed and asked me if I was ok. I told her I felt weird and they saw my blood pressure was low and dropping more. While they did whatever they did to make it come back up I felt miserable. Even with all that I still consider this a perfect delivery. It was fast, and her heart rate never dropped like it did with Sawyer.
She is such a good baby. Sawyer loves her and we love having one of each!

4 hours before she was born

Sawyer Turns 2!

Sawyer turned two in March, he's getting so big! He is talking a lot more and using simple sentences. He has shown a big interest in Elmo so we did an Elmo themed party. It was simple, with just a few family members.

We also celebrated it in Boston with Samong's family when we went in January

Samong's Family at Sawyer's birthday celebration

I dedicate my first post to Jessica

My friend Jessica helped me set up a blog, it's about time. I probably won't update it too often, so don't get too excited. I need to ease into it, I'm sure in a year from now my blog might be worth reading, but for now just try to grin and bear it (to my sole reader, Jessica)

Mealea's first pony tail, she's pretty cute! She is 7 months old now, how time flies. She started crawling last month, but was pretty slow at first. But today I noticed that she is a lot faster so I have to put gates up by the stairs. She can sit up now and plays on the floor with toys, or Sawyer for longer periods of time, its so nice!
One month before she was born we bought our first house. Its on the east side of Idaho Falls, and we are so in love, its perfect! It has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, two living rooms, large kitchen with a dine in area. Two car garage, huge back yard, deck, sprinkler system.. and its in a cul de sac so its safer for the kids. We love the neighbors, and the neighborhood, we couldn't ask for anything more!