2:00 am

So it is about 2:00 in the am and I am wide awake and cant go to sleep. After laying in bed for 30 minutes trying to fall asleep after I watched all of the ridiculous shows that I love to watch (Bachelor Pad/Dating in the Dark) I figured I might as well wake up and do something with my alone/ quiet time. So what did I decide to do, fold laundry and check my emails. Now that that is done I figure I should maybe update my blog since I have been so horrible about updates and it is only going to get worse once I go back to work. It actually could get better b/c I like to take what I call brain breaks at lunch, and updating the blog is a good brain break.
So these could be the reasons why I am not sleeping at this hour that I haven't seen in a very long time... Jack is going to be starting preschool in 3 weeks from tomorrow (or actually today), Addison will not take a bottle, Addison will not let anyone else hold her for more then 5-10 minutes without screaming and searching the room for me, and I am going back to work in less then 2 weeks. I have been with my kids or should I say surrounded by my kids for the past 16 weeks. It is going to be really weird not having my kids with me and having 23 other kids surrounding me for 8 hours of the day. That means I will be spending more time with somebody elses kids then my own. Does that seem right? Not really. I will actually be having real conversations and not only talking about fire trucks and trash trucks that highlight Jacks life right now.
Addie has become quite the mommas girl, but can you blame her. Her dad works 7 days a week and I have been to lazy to get her feeding from the bottle which means she has not left me for more then 2 hours, and that was only once. We have been a package deal. A pretty good package if you ask me. And wouldn't you know since I have decided to try the bottle feeding and need to pump my wonderful dog decided to take a piece of the pump (a major piece) from off of the counter and chew it up one day while we weren't home. So now that I am on a time crunch I have to wait for this piece which you can only order online to arrive in the mail. Thank you Kona for making my life a little more difficult. So back to Addie loving her mom. It breaks my heart when she gets so sad and wont calm down that her face is bright red and she actually has tears running down her chunky monkey cheeks. I don't know if you know this but when babies are first born they don't make tears, it takes a while for that to happen and Addison is just starting to make tears. I don't know what it is that she can sense about me, but she knows it is me within a second of being back in my arms.
I am excited for Jack to be going to school and to be going to school with me is even more exciting. That means we have been successful in the potty training department. Lets just hope it stays that way. I'm a little nervous that the teachers will get to see how my son is. It is going to be his first experience being with someone all day that isn't a family member or close friend. I'm just dreading that I will get a call in my class from his teacher or worse... the office.
Well I think my little man who still doesn't always sleep through the night is jumping into my bed as I type so I should probably go and claim my spot in the bed.
I am going to need a very strong coffee tomorrow. If you see me there will be some type of caffeine in my hand at all times with some blood shot eyes to go with it.

Night night!

3 weeks left

So I have been home with the kids for 14 weeks and only have 3 weeks left till it is time to go back to work. I am so thankful that I have had this time to be with the kids. It has been very busy, doing what exactly I couldn't tell you. I know there's been a lot of diapers and feedings in those 14 weeks. I have also memorized kpbs' schedule of cartoons, a couple Blues Clues episodes and the trash man schedule in our complex. I have also learned Jacks version of his expanding vocabulary. When no one else has a clue what he's saying, I do. We are still working on his potty training and have gotten pretty good, but still have a lot of fine tuning to do in the next couple weeks. The "teet" or treat/m&ms have worked great. Addison is growing up so quickly before my eyes. I'm trying to take a lot of pictures of her b/c I don't want her to look back when she's older and not have any pics b/c she's the "second" child. It's a little hard when Im constantly guarding her from her busy older brother. He's so sweet with her and wants to be right by her side especially when I'm giving her attention. He just doesn't realize it hurts when you bonk two heads together, or when you pull an arm too hard. Also whenever I take a picture he wants to see it, "I see, I see" he says.
Addison rolled over today for the first time. I missed it too. I had her laying on her back on her play blanket, went into the kitchen with Jack and then she was crying. I went out to see what she was fussing about and she was on her stomach trying to lift her head up. I couldn't believe I missed it. Addie also likes to have your attention all the time. She doesn't want to sit there by herself, she wants you talking to her or holding her up so she can stand. She has also turned into a mommas girl, it's hard not to be when she has been with me everyday,all day, since day 1, literally. We need to work on that in the next 3 weeks. We also need to work on the bottle and formula feeding. She is still sleeping through the night which is amazing for me. I wouldn't be able to keep up with her brother if she didn't. I think she knows. She doesn't sleep much during the day, just a couple cat naps, but i'm not complaining. She tries to carry a conversation with you when you talk to her. Tonight while jack was eating dinner I had her standing in my lap facing jack in his high chair. He would be talking about Addie, pointing out that she was blowing bubbles and she would start making noises back to him, with her arms flying in the air with excitement. It was really cute I wish I was able to get it on video. She loves watching him and is always smiling at him. She must not realize that he is the one that makes her cry every once in awhile.
We will be staying busy and enjoying the next couple weeks before Jack starts preschool and I go back to work. I'll keep you updated.
Love you!

Addie is 2 months

So time has gone by so fast. I can remember when I was just 2 months pregnant and then had only 2 months left to go till she was born. Now she is 9 weeks old. On Thursday she had her 2 month well check with the Dr. We knew she was getting big, but didn't realize how big. She is 11 pounds 12 1/4 ounces, and 23 1/2 inches. That means she has gained almost 4 lbs. in 7 weeks and grown 3 inches. We have a growing girl on our hands. She is in the 75% for height and weight. Jack was always on the lower end and still is. So she is 2 months and weighs half as much as her 2 year old brother, makes sense right? I'm loving all of her little dimples and rolls that are starting to form. She is awake now for an hour or 2 every couple of hours and we have a lot of fun when she's awake. She is full of smiles and talks, and makes cute little faces. When she gets really excited her arms and legs start moving around so fast. She is starting to recognize her brother and smiles when he comes up and says hi. He's pretty good at saying her name. Below are some pictures I took one morning when she was in a smiley mood.

Jacks 2nd Birthday

So we finally celebrated Jacks 2nd birthday on Saturday at Kate Sessions park. We had a little bbq and pinate with family. Jack had a blast playing on the slide and swings and chasing his cousins. The weather was nice, a little windy, but we still had a really good time. I can't believe he is 2, it seems like I was just getting everything ready for his 1st birthday. He is wearing his first Padres hat that he got on Father's Day. He is super good about wearing it, I think he looks pretty cute in it too.

Summer fun part 1

Even though I have been off for 8 weeks I wasn't able to do as much as I wanted. I was feeling better from the c-section but I still had to be careful with what I did and how active I was. Not to mention I still had to do some things at school. Now that school is out and I am done with parent conferences summer is officially here.
We went to Palm Springs for a couple of days with my cousin Rissa. She just graduated from UCSD and needed a little R&R. I don't know if going to Palm Springs with 2 kids gave her that, but it was nice to get away from everything in San Diego. We played in the pool, ate and did a little shopping at the outlets. While we tried to stay quiet so she could sleep in we did a little scootering outside before it was to hot and picked up coffee.
For Father's Day we went to the Padre game. Our first game this season. We have decided we no longer need to buy seats, we just need to bring a big blanket. The grass area they have for families is great, plus a fun little playground to keep the kids entertained. We will be taking advantage of the park at the park for sure this summer.
We will keep you updated with all of our summer fun.
Here are pictures from Palm Springs, the beach and the Padre game.

Family pictures

A couple weeks ago we had our first family photo session. We went to Coronado to a little park that was right across the street from the beach. Jack was a bit of a handful that day but the pictures came out great anyways. Out photographer was great with him as you can see from some of the shots she was able to get his cute little facial expressions. You can also see really how red Addisons hair is, just like her momma. Take a look!

http://photographybyalison.com/clientsite/rader/

So much going on!

Things have been crazy for the Rader household. Getting used to having two has been an adjustment. The biggest thing is everything takes a lot longer to do. I think I have left the house by 8am once, maybe twice. Usually I leave to go anywhere by 11. You think I'm kidding, I'm not. I don't know what I'm going to do when it's time to go back to work. Thank goodness that's not for another couple of months.

So since I last wrote many things have happened. One of the more exciting things to happen is Jack turned 2! We went to Sea World for the afternoon and played in the kids area and visited all of Jacks favorite mammals. We kept it simple and are having his "construction and tractors" themed birthday party next week. I needed a little time to get things together and recover from the baby before throwing a party. I don't know if I have shared that Jack loves Elmo. He will watch his Elmo dvd's over and over and anything he sees that is red, is Elmo. I thought for sure he would love to see Elmo at Sea World and take a picture with him. As soon as he saw him he was so excited, as soon as we started walking towards him he started to panic. His grip on my arm started to get tighter and tighter. So we ended up not getting a picture with Elmo, maybe next time.

We are starting to work on the whole potty training thing. For Jack to go to school with me in the fall he needs to be potty trained. He has an Elmo potty that he loves to sit on and now when he has to go he says "Elmo, Elmo." It took me awhile to catch on that that was what he was talking about. I thought he just meant he wanted to watch Elmo on tv. We've got a lot of work to do to get there, but at least he's interested. It's going to be harder for me to remember to take him to the bathroom all the time.

Addison is growing so quickly. I cant believe she is going to be 8 weeks old this week. She is growing so big and really filling in. I would hope so with the amount of eating she does. I think I am the only one that eats more then her in this house. In the past couple of days she has been trying to roll over. She arches her back and tries to kick her leg over. She loves ceiling fans just like her brother. She's not picky, they can be moving or still and she will be focused on them for the longest time. She likes to talk to us and her little bees that go around on her swing. She smiles at you when you talk to her and it is the most beautiful little smile. I can't wait to hear her giggle. I know I have a couple weeks till that happens, but I can't wait. Addie is the best sleeper, I don't know how I got so lucky. Sleep is very crucial for me to have and to be able to function. I will put her down between 8:30 or 9;30 and she will fall asleep on her own and sleep till 3:30 to 5:30. After a quick feeding she is back to sleep for a couple more hours. Now I just need to get little Jack to sleep as good as she does.

Jack is a fish! I can't believe how comfortable he is in the pool. He loves to jump off the step and swim to me. I have to be very careful and keep my eyes on him the whole time b/c he will do it whenever he feels like it. We have been going to the pool the past couple weekends and I would think he would be exhausted after swimming and kicking and being in the sun for hours but he's not. I of course am more tired then he is. We went to the beach for the first time this summer. It wasn't to hot, it was perfect, minus the flies. Going to the beach with children is a whole different experience. Not only do you need to bring more towels, have endless snacks for the kids and you, sand toys b/c you cant go to the beach and not build a sandcastle, umbrella, chairs, but now that there is a baby you have to have a protected place for the baby to go while you are entertaining the toddler. I wish I had this when Jack was a baby. It's a little tent that has 50+sun protection, shade and a removable screen to keep bugs out. Addison did great in it and slept most of the time while we were there.

Jack is still doing really well as a big brother. He is still really protective of her. He wants to play with her so bad. He doesn't understand that she isn't old enough to catch his big plastic ball when he throws it at her face (thank goodness it's plastic and doesn't hurt) or that she can't play with his trash truck even when he puts it on top of her while in her swing (that kind of hurts). He wants to give her the paci when she starts to cry. For the most part he is pretty gentle when he sticks it in her mouth. He just doesn't get that she doesn't always want it when she cries. Some days he is a little parrot and will repeat everything you say. Those are the days you really have to be careful with what you say.

Here are some pictures of what we have been doing in the past couple of weeks.