Abby is 2 months old (a family update post)

Yesterday my little girl turned 2 months, and on Saturday my big boy will turn 2! And he'll even tell you that when you ask him. Unless he's in a bad mood, in which case he will say "no no."

First of all, I went ahead and measured and weighed her this morning, not because I was worried but because I was curious. She is 15 lb and 25.5 inches long, taking after her brother and not fitting in the confines of the CDC growth charts. Gone are the days of 0-3 month clothing. That's alright though; we've managed to fill her drawer full of pink, red, and lavender clothes ranging in sizes from 3 - 9 months. She is sleeping great at night -- nursing once or twice, and going back to sleep just wonderfully. I credit the full schedule we keep trying to busy her brother during the day. She has to sleep when she has the chance! She is smiling and giggling and "talking" to us. She also has an awesome poker face when she poops. We hear the sound but her facial expression changes not one bit! She seems like a much easier baby than Stephen was. I think it's a combination of her being easier going and me not being quite as nervous!

Stephen is continuing to amaze us with his understanding and awareness of the world around him. I'm sure every parent of a toddler thinks that, but it's so real when it's my own kid! He hears an airplane and finds it in the sky. He remembers that we saw a train at the bus station and looks for it the next time we go. He has finally figured out that Z is actually a letter, and not just an N that we turned on its side! He also seems to love having his sister around and is actually disappointed when I get him up in the morning and I'm not holding her. I have to make sure I don't create too many routines in his day or he begins to expect the same thing to happen every time. Today when we were at the grocery store I purposefully avoided walking by the bakery because the workers always want to give him a cookie and I don't want him to start thinking grocery store = cookie.

He is learning to "obey" and is sometimes better at it than other times. He picked up the word himself while listening to his Bible verse CD and loves saying it much more than he loves doing it. The main instructions we expect him to follow are to come in the house when we ask and to sit on the floor for a diaper change. He seems to get suggestions confused with commands. For instance, I said "let's go play with your alphabet ball." To which he replied, "obey obey obey" as he happily walked over to it.

Ryan has been working long hours with the music camp and getting ready for his recital. We will both breathe a sigh of relief when it is over ... and then have to figure out where we're going to live and pack to move out of here by July 31! We're 99% certain we're staying in the Champaign-Urbana area, but won't be staying in the same duplex.