Madeline's 4th Birthday

Maddie had quite a birthday (or should I say birth week) this year.  We celebrated with our families on Saturday, she had an overnight at Grandma and Grandpa's on Sunday, went shopping with Grandma and had a little party with them on Monday, went to the waterpark and County fair with us on Tuesday (her actual birthday), and then had a party at a park with friends.  I don't know who was more tired after it all, me or her!  We wanted to make sure this year she felt special on her day given the new baby in the house and I think we succeeded.  She had a Strawberry Shortcake party and the girls were decked out in their strawberry themed outfits for both parties.  It's so much fun dressing two girls now.  It's hard to believe that Maddie is 4, but she does seem so big now compared to little Emmie!  Some days it seems like she's 4, going on 14.  But she's still our little girl and we love her so much!

Here are pictures from the family celebration

And some cute ones from the party with her friends

First Bottle and Visit with Great Nana

Emmie took her first bottle no problem and then Maddie enjoyed giving her a bottle too.  She did a great job. 

Here are just some pictures of Emersyn chillin' with Daddy outside on the porch.  She is getting so much more alert and focusing on things. 

We went up to Pennsylvania one Saturday to visit with Great Nana and swim in the pool at Great Aunt Lorraine's house.  I would have had some great pictures of her beautiful pool and Maddie swimming in it, but I managed to slip on the wet floor and fall (with Emersyn in my arms), catching myself with my elbow and ended up at urgent care to get 2 stitches.  I was on my way to get the camera, so obviously I didn't get the pictures!  Thanks be to God, Emersyn was fine!

Snuggling with Mommy

 

Visit with Shelley, Lourdes, Jennie and Jackson

We were so lucky to have Shelley and Lourdes come up from South Carolina to visit when Emersyn was almost 4 weeks old. Jennie and Jackson came out to stay at our house for the weekend.  It was great having Maddie and Lourdes together again and Jackson loved hanging with the big girls.  He is quite the little charmer with those baby blues.  We had a lot of fun just being together.  Lourdes loved holding Emersyn, but not as much as her mommy Shelley did.  Every time Emersyn was done eating (meaning I didn't have to be holding her, Shelley would take her).  I wish they could always be here!  Here are some sweet moments from the weekend.  I didn't take nearly enough pictures, the time went too fast!

One month old!

It's hard to believe that Emersyn is one month old already and even harder to believe that I don't have a recent picture to post at the time that I'm writing this. Hopefully I'll have one to add by the end of the day, but if not I'll just put one of Maddie and see if I can fool anyone, because they look so much alike! (Finally added picture on 8/5/10!)
Emmie had her one month check up and she weighs 8 lbs. 7 oz. which means she's gained 3 whole lbs. since we brought her home. The pediatrician said, "it's almost illegal how quickly she's gaining weight!" The pediatrician is a lovely Dutch woman, so it was funnier when she said it with a Dutch accent. We are trying to figure out if Emersyn has reflux, a milk protein sensitivity or possibly both. She's had episodes of being pretty uncomfortable so we're hoping to have that figured out so that she can remain the content little baby that she's been so far!

We got the rest of the family/newborn pictures from the photographer and she put together a nice slideshow and here's the link:

http://www.photodex.com/share/kimberlyc/6b9w8mg4

Newborn Portraits

We had a neighbor who is a photographer take some pictures for us to capture Emersyn when she's still tiny. She posted some previews of the pictures on her blog at
http://www.kcoughlinphotoblog.com/?p=1353
We're looking forward to seeing all the pictures!

Weeks 1 and 2

I had hoped to have a new blog up and running by now, but it hasn't happened.  So for now, Emersyn Kate will have to share the blog with Madeline Eve.  This is actually pretty accurate, because despite the typical demands of a newborn (frequent feedings and diaper changes), Madeline's presence is typically more obvious than Emersyn's.  She has been a wonderful baby so far and not too demanding.  Maddie on the other hand still likes to be entertained with never-ending games of pretend play, dress up, etc.  Luckily, she's had lots of fun things to do, thanks to friends and family for keeping her busy!  Maddie loves her baby sister and has said several times spontaneously, "Mommy, I'm really really really glad we have a baby!"  So sweet!  Here are some pictures we've taken since we brought little Emmie home! 

Maddie of course had to accesorize Emmie with a headband!

She's Here!!!!

Emersyn Kate Moskal has arrived!  She was born on June 12th at 11:50 a.m., weighed 5lbs. 15 oz. and is 19 1/2 inches long.  After a natural delivery without an epidural, I feel great and Emersyn is doing very well!  Here are just a few pictures from the first day.  I will be sure to follow up with more.  Madeline has been a very sweet big sister so far and we're excitd to all be home together.  Thanks for all the love and support from everyone...we did it!

Check out these new tricks!

Maddie has been LOVING riding her bike this Spring and is getting very fast. She's been riding with training wheels on and I've started to get nervous that she's going to wipe out because she goes so fast. So I was curious to see how she could do riding without the training wheels. Tonight, she asked Chris to take off her training wheels and she did pretty well! It's a start at least and I think with some practice she'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. She seems to have a good reflex to brake and put her foot down when she gets off balance. Pretty cool!


Madeline is also having a blast at the pool so far. It's only been open a little over a week and I think she's been swimming about 5 times. At the beginning she was very resistant to putting her face in the water, but has since become quite comfortable doing it. Here are two videos from the same day. The first one is in the baby pool and she tenatively puts her face in. The second is her jumping into the big pool all by herself (with a vest on) and going under water. I'm excited to see what she can do by the end of the summer! Oh and these videos are all taken on our new Flip Video camera that Chris gave me for my birthday! It's a little HD video camera that is so much better than taking video on our old digital camera. I love it!