September 2009

Dear Girls,

This past month has seen a couple of firsts. Rachel, you had your first day of school, Emily had her first time going to Miss Judy's, and your mother had her first day back at work. A few days ago, Emily turned two months old, and a couple of weeks ago, Rachel turned 3 years and three months old.


Emily, you've been very busy taking everything in. You're still not on much of a schedule yet, but you are getting closer. We have a pretty good schedule once we all get home, but I don't know how consistent you are with sleeping (which is the key to any schedule) at Judy's house. When we're all home, you generally are awake until about 10 PM, then we feed you and put you to bed. Every once in a while you're sleep the entire night, but usually you're awake somewhere between 3:30 and 4:30 in the morning.


You are eating bigger bottles less frequently now, and I've been kicking myself because I never wrote any of this stuff down about your big sister. If I had, we could compare, and jog our memories about the things we were doing to get her to sleep and be on more of a regular schedule


You've started smiling a lot, and I'm sure at this point it's more than gas. You smile whenever you see someone you recognize, like me, your mother, or your big sister. You also turn to look at us when we talk to you or when we walk by.


You're also able to keep your head up on your own quite a bit now. You still get tired and let it flop over from time to time, but you have a lot of control over your head, and we can see your neck getting stronger every day.


We found out that you do indeed have some hearing loss in your left ear. We had some extensive tests (to the tune of several hours) run on you, and it was determined that you have mild to severe hearing loss in your left ear. You can hear low pitches really well, with just a little bit of amplification, but high pitched sounds you have a really hard time with. Since your right ear hears just fine, they're telling us that it's very possible that you will develop speech and language normally, but we're going to have a team of experts helping us keep a close eye on you. We found out that you will need get a CT scan when you turn 6 months to find out exactly what's going on in your left ear.


Rachel, you're still being an amazing big sister. I keep wondering when the honeymoon will end, but I'm really enjoying how much you love your little sister right now. You still want to sit with me every time I feed her, and help me out. You hover right over her face and say "Hiiiieeeeeeee" to her in the high pitched little voice, trying to get her to smile at you.


You wake up every day asking if we go to school today. Never once have you said that you didn't want to go, and most of the time when I drop you off, I have to remind you to come give me a kiss because you're off playing with your friends the second you get there.


You come home singing songs, counting, and telling us about things that we haven't taught you. It is amazing to me how fast you're learning things, and it's fun to listen to you talk and sing to yourself. A couple of weeks ago, you were in sitting on the potty, singing a song to yourself, when I heard you stop and say, "One, two, three....eyes on me!" And then you continued singing your song.


Lately, you've been telling us what letter everything begins with. "D-D-Daddy...does Daddy start with the letter D?" Of course, sometimes you get the sound of the letter and the way you actually say the letter mixed up, but it's very cute. "D-D-Double-U...just like D-D-Daddy" I never truly appreciated just how hard it was to learn things like language and letter sounds!


You have your very own computer now. Since the hinges on Mommy's laptop started going out, we bought her a new one, and set up her old one on a table and hooked it up to a monitor. You know exactly where the PBS Kids shortcut is on the desktop, and you ask all the time if you can play with your computer.


You are both amazing little girls, and we are so lucky to have you. We love you both very much and can't wait to see what this next month will bring.

Love,
Daddy

My sentiments exactly!

Man, it's been a loooooong week.

First Day of School

Rachel had her first day of preschool yesterday.


She has been talking about it since we first told her she was going to school earlier this summer.


She had a great first day, and woke up again this morning ready to go!

August 2009

Dear girls,

So...we're starting this month off a little differently. You're going to have to get used to sharing things, anyway, so I figured I'd give you a bit of a head start.


Rachel, you turned three years and two months old last week, and we are still amazed by you every single day. You have become very independent, and while it's a relief that you are so able to go and do things on your own, it's a bit scary for us too.


While we were in Illinois last week, you went next door and played with the neighbor girls, Kimmie and Tricia, most of the day. All by yourself. Every hour or so, we'd peek across the fence to make sure you were still there, and then go back to whatever it was we were doing. You also had two successful trips to a public restroom all by yourself. Both happened while we were on the road, after I'd decided that the men's restroom was far too disgusting for you (your mother was feeding your sister both times). You went it, did your thing, washed your hands, and came back out all without any help from me.


That's really good because you're going to start pre-school next week. We went to meet your teacher on Friday and you took off, playing with other kids all by yourself for about 30 minutes. You've been looking forward to this day ever since we told you that you were going to school. When we had to come home, you were very sad. You were ready to stay all day.


You've been such a good big sister this past month, and we only had a small worry right after we brought Emily home. We were playing outside one day, and I had the baby monitor out there with me because Emily was sleeping. She made some little noise in her sleep and you asked what it was. I told you it was Emily, and you said, "I don't care. I don't care about Emily," and that was the last we heard of it. The rest of the time it's been "I love my baby sister," "I want to kiss her!" and "Can I hold her?" You give her kisses all the time, and I'm hoping that continues as the two of you get older.


Emily, your first month with us has been amazing. I never knew that my heart could open up and have any more love in it than I had for your sister, but it has. We were very excited to meet you, and we still can't believe that we're parents to two beautiful little girls.


I don't know how we've managed to juggle having two kids in the house, and just like your big sister got to experience all of our first child mistakes, you will get to experience all of our having-to-deal-with-two-kids mistakes.


We've had some adjusting to do with you...it turns out your tummy didn't agree with the formula we'd been giving you, and your first week or so, you'd squirm and kick and scream trying to get rid of the gas and the poop you had built up inside of you. We switched you to a different formula, and it seems to have made a world of difference.


You're to the point now where you're sleeping 5 hours (or close to it) every night. Of course, we'd like for you to be sleeping longer than that, but we'll take what we can get. Speaking of sleeping, girl, you sleep like an old man. You make so many noises when you sleep, it sounds like you're waking up all the time. When we went to Illinois, you were sleeping in a play pen in the same room as us, and after a couple of nights, we had to move you out to the dining room because you were keeping us up all night with all of your moaning and groaning.


When you wake up in the mornings, your eyes are almost always covered in goopy eye boogers. We don't know what's causing it, but if you're anything like me, you might be allergic to something in our house. I hope that we can figure it out and get you to stop waking up with crusty eyes.


One thing that has us a little worried is that you failed your hearing test in the hospital. Your right ear was just fine, but your left ear failed. We have a more extensive test scheduled for you later this month, so hopefully we'll know more about what's causing that after we get those test results.


We all went up to Illinois last week to visit with your grandparents. It was your first flight, in what will probably be a long string of air travel for you, Emily, and you handled it like a champ. Rachel, I think we figured out that this was your 5th time on an airplane in just three short years. Your frequent flier card is in the mail.


We are so happy and so fortunate to have the both of you in our lives. We love you both very much, and as always, we can't wait to watch you grow up.


Love always,
Daddy

Curly

We have given Emily a couple of baths since she's been home, and every time we do, her hair coils up like little springs, in these tight little curls. It will be interesting to see if it still curls like that once she loses her baby hair.

Sisters

Emily Marie

I am proud to introduce you to Emily Marie Martinez Laleman.


She came into the world at 2:37 PM, Thursday, July 16, 2009, at 7 pounds, 1 ounce, and 19.75 inches long.


Mother and baby are doing very well.


Thanks to everyone for all of the congratulations and well wishes. We've been burning up the lines on Facebook all day!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I've had that damn David Bowie song running through my head all day....and now you will too.

I just finished reading my posts from June 2006 when we were waiting for Rachel to arrive. Things were so different then. We didn't know what to expect, we were just flying by the seat of our pants and hoping for the best. I couldn't sleep the night before we went to the hospital because I was so excited to meet her.

I wouldn't say that I'm not excited to meet Emily, I just have a better idea of what's going to happen this time. I'm not as anxious about the little things. I have a better idea of what to expect over the next few days, and it's going to be so much different from when Rachel was born. We were in the hospital all day, waiting for her to come, before they took Monica in for a c-section. This time, we'll go in around 10:30 and by 1 we'll have a child.

We're seasoned parents now, but still apprehensive about how everything will go. We are hopeful that she will be healthy, and that she'll eat and sleep like she's supposed to. With Rachel, we worried about every little thing. Now, we worry about the big picture. How will it be handling two kids? How will Rachel take to her little sister? Will she be an easy baby like Rachel, or were we just suckered in?

I'm very much looking forward to meeting this new little one, and starting Chapter 3 of our lives.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post some pictures tomorrow, but if not, I'll get to it on Friday.

Three Years, One Month

Dear Rachel,

This past week, you turned 37 months old. We've had a lot of fun this month, and you've been spending a lot of time at home with Mommy. She's off for the summer, but I still have to go to work four days out of the week. It's been really nice to have long weekends with you and Mommy, though, so we can do more things together, like going to the beach.


Momma feels bad for you because you'll stop being our only child in less than a week, and she's worried about how you will handle it. She never had to go from being the center of attention to not being the center of attention, and I told her that you'd do just fine with it. And if you don't, I'll tell you to suck it up. It's part of life. We have been watching you when you're around other babies and you seem to do fine. We just don't know how you'll be when there's one around 24/7.


Since Emily is coming in less than a week, we decided that you would switch rooms, so that Emily would be closer to our room in case we neede to get up with her in the middle of the night. Listen to me, "in case." Like it might happen. Anyway, you were very excited about getting a new room, so last week, we moved all of your stuff, and sorted through your toys to decide which ones to keep, which ones to leave for Emily, and which ones to throw out. It made quite a difference in the amount of stuff you had, and the built in bookshelves in your new room gave us a great place to put a lot of your things that had previously been on the floor or in your closet. This weekend, we got new carpet in all of the bedrooms, and you got a new "big girl" bed. You're making out pretty well in this whole deal.


Your attitude seemed to change overnight this past month, too. About halfway through the month, I said to your mother, "Have you noticed that there haven't really been that many fits this month?" Then I immediately knocked on wood, threw salt over my shoulder and ran backward in a circle three times so as not to jinx it. You've gotten really good about taking "no" from us, and listening when we're trying to correct you. I don't know if the sudden change has to do with being home with Momma all the time, or turning three, or what. I guess we'll know for sure once school starts again.


Like last summer, we've been trying to stay cool by staying in the water as much as we can. We went to the beach a couple of weeks ago, and we've been hitting the pool pretty often too. You are a regular little fish, and love to be in the water. When we were in the ocean, you were riding the waves in your little blow-up ring, and you wanted me to let go of you. Every time a big wave would come, you'd laugh and laugh and say how much fun it was.


You've also been going to the library and the movies with Momma during the week while I'm at work. You've been to three movies now, and Momma says you're doing better sitting through the whole thing, but you do have to go potty during the movie a few times.


We're trying to get you to understand the concept of "borrowing" since the first time you brought home books from the library, you thought they were yours to keep. You've also gotten to borrow a little tiny laptop from my work, which you think is yours to keep also.


I know I always talk about your personality, but this month, you've started saying things that just make us roll with laughter. Not things that are inappropriate, but just things that are completely unexpected. We can really tell that you're starting to think on your own, and below I've listed just a few of the best Rachel-isms that we heard this month.

"I had so much fun here!" said coming out of HEB
"I miss Mommy," two seconds after she got out of the car
"These are too much kids," said after gathering all of your stuffed animals in your bed.
"It's de-yishis!" about a Jimmy John's sandwich
"That will probably be fun!"
"I need appetizer soap!" instead of hand sanitizer. When I told you slowly how to say it - hand san-i-tizer, you said, "hand san-appetizer soap."
"Mommy, George is ALL done, so that means I need to play on your computer."

As always, we're very excited for this coming month, and can't wait to see how you handle being a big sister. We love you very much, and you will always hold a very special place in our hearts as our first child.

Love
Daddy

Four years ago...

We were just getting the night started...now we're getting ready to go to bed.




Happy Anniversary, babe!

Coming soon...

We had the 3D ultrasound a week ago, but I thought I'd give Rachel's 3rd birthday the attention it deserved before we started making her share her space.




She is scheduled to arrive in a little less than a month.

Three years

Dear Rachel,

Last week, you turned three years old. It's summer now, and this summer will mark a lot of transitions for you.


We've been trying to spend a lot of time with you because we know that very soon, you'll stop being an only child. You are also done, for the most part, going to Miss Judy's. You'll go to see her a few times over the summer, but very soon, you're going to start going to preschool, at a "big girl" school.


The big thing that happened this month was your fall at Miss Judy's a few weeks ago. You are such a clumsy little girl. I always joke about how you have my coordination, which is to say that you have none, but this month, it really came back and bit you. You hit your head really hard on the floor when you fell, and the resulting bump looked like a silly putty egg coming out of your forehead. After the bump started to heal, the resulting bruise started draining into your eye sockets, and it looked like you had been in a prize fight. Everywhere we went, people stared at you, and it made your mother a little uneasy and a little defensive. I'm sure people thought the worst, but we know the truth. You're just a little klutz, and you've recovered just fine.


This probably doesn't mean anything to you, but you now have two highly educated parents. Mommy graduated with her Master's from A&M Kingsville earlier this month, and she is the first person in her family to earn an advanced degree. It's a pretty big accomplishment, and now both of your parents have Master's degrees, but we still can't decide what to have for dinner on any given night.


Momma also got a new truck this past month. We had to work quickly after the fire to find something that she liked and that she could afford. She decided on a Chevy Tahoe so that when Nana and Dodd come down again this winter, all of us can take a trip in one vehicle. You still ask about Mommy's Toyota, and tell us that it's in "Toyota heaven," but you've now memorized another car emblem. You know a bunch of them - Ford, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and now Chevy.


We had your third birthday party last weekend, and we made it a small affair. We have had a lot going on and didn't want to have to plan a huge party for you. I'm sure that makes us bad parents, but you didn't seem to mind. You had your Curious George cake with blue frosting (your specific request) and you were happy.


You have gotten really good at riding your tricycle. You used to be satisfied just riding around in the driveway, but last month, we started letting you ride on the sidewalk in front of our house, and down a few houses. In the past couple of weeks, that ride has gotten longer and longer, until we finally went all the way down the block, across the street, around the next block and back up our street. It's a pretty long way for you to ride, but you handle it like a champ. The only part you have trouble with is coming back up our street, since it's uphill. We usually walk a little way with me carrying the trike, for the most part, you ride on your own. It's a great way to tire you out before your bath in the evening.


We're looking forward to spending the next 6 weeks or so with you, and I'm really looking forward to taking you to the pool a few times this summer to give Mommy a break. We love you very much, and we're very excited for all of the changes coming your way in the next couple of months.


Love,
Daddy

Happy Birthday, big girl!

It's been such a busy day, I am just now getting time to post this. Monthly newsletter coming soon!