Balancing the blog may prove more difficult than balancing the budget. It’s tough having two quite entertaining kids who are rapidly evolving (and requiring significantly more time than one kid did) and finding a way to share their exploits equally.

But I am committed.

Ella is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. And Zoe happens to agree! To this day (3+ months later, which is forever to a 4-year-old) Zoe is a proud big sister who constantly wants to hug, kiss and brag about her little sister, Ella. As you may have guessed, sometimes that’s quite annoying. But most of the time it’s super cute. And when Zoe SINGS to her (or puts her pacifier back into her mouth in the backseat of the car), it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

So far little miss Ella is staying on track. Here are a few updates to prove it:

• SLEEP. She’s now hit a record 9.5 hour stretch between feedings (only once, but still) and has had several 6, 7, 8+ hour ones as well. In fact, we’re now annoyed when she has an off-night (which of course she did my first day back to work) where she only has a 4 or 5 hour window between. Poor me. Ha!
• GROWTH. We put her on a home scale to check in between doc visits and a week ago she was 12 pounds and 6 ounces! She’s also outgrown her 3 month clothes, fitting into 3-6 or even 6 month onesies by both chubby chub belly and thighs and by length. We go back for her 4-month (I can’t believe it) doctor visit on Jan 16, so stay tuned.
• MILESTONES. She’s beginning to reach out and grab things and has rolled over twice (once was a month ago, by complete accident but the other just happened, so we think she’s close to that one!) And I really think she’s teething already… I swear I can feel something up top on the right and she’s chewing and drooling, two signs of teething. Tummy time is ridiculous – she has great head control, and she can face forward in a Baby Bjorn and sit up in a Bumbo for limited amounts of time already (usually a 4- to even 6-month expectation). I’m willing to bet this kid will walk early.
• CONNECTIONS. She coos and “chats”, mimics facial expressions and has solid eye contact. In fact, she smiled at a complete stranger a couple of days ago, so we wonder how much she’ll be like Zoe in the social category. Too soon to tell, but it seems likely she’ll never meet a stranger.

The only less-than-great news is that we’ve had some nursing issues since my return to work: Nipple Confusion :(

Even though we introduced a bottle at 4 weeks, knowing we’d need that, now that she has bottles all day long she sometimes gets confused at the breast… Sometimes = most of the time during the day for the past 2 weeks. Thankfully the night feedings are no problem, and the past couple of days are getting better, so we think she’ll work it out. If not, our weekends will involve more pumping that I’d like, but as they say, “Feed the Baby.” I’ll do whatever it takes.

So that’s the update on little Ella. We have no real complaints and can’t wait for her and Zoe to get some real sister time as she becomes more capable, upright and alert. In the meantime, we’ll enjoy the time before they argue and have to figure out how to share, while they’re still BFFs (thank you, Oma, for the cutie pie outfits!):