Week 6 - More Sippin' and Seein'

This week was a pretty quiet one. The big event was Laura's Kansas City 'Sip and See' on Saturday. Aunt Jen and a few of Laura's close friends jointly hosted the event for Miss Aubrey at Brio. Everyone had a great time!



The Anderson brood



Our old next-door neighbors, Corey and Jill, came by with dinner during the week and to meet Aubrey. Due to Corey's past history with starting home fires, Reggie was on his toes at all times during the visit!

Aubrey is finally starting to outgrow her newborn clothes. And it is due to her length rather than weight. Not sure how Aubrey can eat as much as she does, and still be so skinny. Ol' Mama must just produce skim milk!

First Road Trip

Urban cowboy and his sister

Our little girl! What a quick 30 days!

As has been said before, your personal time reduces exponentially with multiple kids. Thus, it was really nice on Wednesday when Papa Rick and Aunt Ally came over to watch the kids so that we could attend a concert for the night. It was really nice to get away for a date night knowing they were in good hands.

Thursday brought the "once in a lifetime" May snow, where KC got a couple of inches. Sorry Aubrey that you won't remember it. Luckily, we were already set to leave KC to head to St. Louis for the weekend for Aubrey's newborn pictures and a 'Sip and See' at Mimi's house. So, in the middle of the snow, we loaded up, packed Aubrey some roadies, and headed off!

April showers bring May shoveling! This is before we left.



Having fun, but missing our kiddos (sort of)



Friday morning was the photo shoot with Steven Seebeck. Henry was hamming it up for the camera, performing "Blue Ribbon Bunny" and growling for Steve the whole time he was trying to take pictures. Aubrey did great for the most part, though near the end it became a process of pulling the pacifier right before Steve was ready to shoot, then re-insert it 5 seconds later. In the middle of all this, Reggie had to chase Henry around to ensure that Steve didn't have to add any damaged equipment to our bill! Friday night Mimi and Papa watched the kids so that the parents could go out on the town with our friends.

Saturday morning was the Sip and See brunch. If you don't know what that is, it is where a bunch of hens get together at a house and take turns holding/meeting the baby. Essentially, a shower. Aubrey made out like a bandit, receiving tons of cute outfits and other items. Henry even got gifts from the aunts!

Aunt Colleen getting her 'fix'



Papa and Aubs



'Favorite' Michelle with Colton

Don't worry Aubs, cousin Amie is bringing you a playpal shortly!





'Ho' and 'Lo', with one big bow!

Developmentally, Aubrey is starting to smile a bit, which is heartwarming to say the least. Laura works on "tummy time" with her a lot, even though Aubrey hates it. However, her neck is getting pretty strong, and we anticipate she'll be holding her head on her own in no time!

Week 4 - Birthday gifts for Laura

As part of Reggie's birthday, he went to the Royals game with Adam on Saturday, setting up Laura having to watch both kids during the night. Since Henry is potty training, this set up a complete disaster for Laura. By the end of the night, Henry had left two 'gifts' for Laura on the floor, and peed on the couch! Luckily, Aubrey was very well-behaved, and sat quietly in her swing while Laura cleaned up everything. Reggie and Adam couldn't help but chuckle a bit as the texts Laura was sending off rolled through his phone!



Watching the Royals - they play better when she naps



On a related note, we have figured out that for some reason, when we raise our voices to get onto Henry for a myriad of things he does that it actually puts Aubrey to sleep. Lucky for her, Henry will afford her one of these 'sleep opportunities' at least daily :)

Aubrey continues to eat about every 2-3hrs., which is great. Of course, it means Larua is never able to get ahead so that we will have bottles for her when we go out on the town. This may become an issue as we move forward into summer and have various events/outings. She also is getting more comfortable with her swing, allowing Laura about an hour per day to do things other than hold her and feed her.

On Tuesday, some of Laura's Hallmark friends came over, bringing pizza and beer in tow. One woman, Emily, is also Henry's girlfriend (at least until she gets married later this summer :) ). While Reggie and Henry mowed the lawn, they each took turns holding Aubrey and giving Laura a break.


Katie getting practice for her own to-be infant!



Jessica and Aubs



Week 3 - Making Aubrey happy

Henry loves his little sister without a doubt. Now, in addition to racing to give Aubrey the first kiss when he and Reggie get home, he has also started to try and "make Aubrey happy" when she cries. This generally entails him going over to her chair/swing and giving her a kiss or holding her hand. This quickly transitions to him singing and dancing in front of her. It is both utterly hilarious and heartwarming to say the least.

"What are you about to do, Henry?"

This week we also started potty training Henry. He is about 95% successful with "#1," and about 1% successful with the rest. After constipating himself for four days, it all came to a head on Thursday when the Cowie's were over to meet Aubrey. While playing with their two girls, Henry came running up to Laura exclaiming, "Mommy, the poopy is coming out, the poopy is coming out!" In addition to the Cowie's, Aubrey had visits from our friends Elizabeth and Ashley.



Ashley Albers and Aubrey



Elizabeth Mills and Aubrey

On Sunday, the family went to the baptism of Laura's friend's daughter, Lucy. We continue to struggle to get out of the house at the appropriate time, so we were late and happened to miss the ceremony itself.  Immediately upon arriving at the church, Aubrey was hungry, and Henry was onery. So, for the rest of the service, Laura fed Aubrey in a side room, and Reggie took Henry outside to run around. Praise the Lord!

In 6 months, you'll be at Lucy's size, Aubs!

The end of this week was Reggie's birthday. As you may have guessed, a birthday with two kids under the age of 3 is going to be celebrated at home! Laura made Hawaiian pizza, a favorite, and got a cookie cake to celebrate.

The kids enjoyed the celebration (or at least the cookie cake!)

Aubrey has hit her birth weight, and can now start taking bottles. She is in the 50th percentile for height , and the 25th percentile for weight. For as much as she eats Laura must be making skim milk!

Week 2 - That didn't take long

If you remember back to Henry's infancy, Laura quickly took the title of "parent most likely to get peed on." Well, have no fear, because she has triumphantly retained her title this time around as well! Hey, at least this time neither of the incidents were in the face :).

This was a week of adjustments for the family, as Henry went back to daycare and Reggie back to work. On his first day back, Reggie almost forgot that he will be picking up Henry for the next 4 months! Overall, it seems much more difficult. No longer is it 2-on-1, now both parents have to pick a kid and cover them off! This has really put a crimp in all the Real Housewives' series that Laura can follow! Also, Aubrey is certainly not a fan of being sat down. Laura has found that out the hard way during her week at home. Essentially, upon setting her down, you have about 5 -10 minutes to get what you complete what you needed to do before she goes nuclear on you. Even at night, we can only get her to sleep for maybe an hour at a time in her vibrating chair (the bassinet is a NO-GO). However, if Reggie holds her in bed, she will routinely sleep for up to 5 hours! Due to our own selfish wants, we have decided for now to let Reggie hold her on multiple nights :)

Allowing mom a short break from holding her

Henry continues to be amazing with his new little sister. He and Reggie have started 'racing' when they
get home at night to see who can give Aubrey a hug and kiss first. Henry always wins.

I don't know if Emily is smiling for the camera, or because of the size of the bow up on Aubrey's dome!

Mimi came back to town on Tuesday to help Laura out for the week.  She was such a help with everything, and allowed for Laura to be able to somewhat maximize her sleep! Of course, she loved all the one-on-one time she was able to get with her new grandaughter.

On Thursday, Laura and Kathy took Aubrey over to April's house for lunch with their good friend Jill, who was in town from Los Angeles. Jill was a little disappointed to learn that we were doing the "Week" pictures differently this time around :)

Jill and Aubrey

On Sunday, Papa Rick and Grandma Rosie came up to visit for the day. In addition, Laura took Aubrey over to her friend Leslie's home for a trunk show/henfest in order to show off our little girl. Aubrey did great, right up until the point she decided she was hungry... While Laura and Aubrey were away, the grandparents and Aunt Allison took Henry out for cookies and ice cream and played on our swingset.

Henry had just finished serenading miss Nora Cowie

Henry's ridiculous "Cheese!" smile

Week One - The journey begins again

Boy, what a difference a couple of years makes. Since 2010, St. Luke's had renovated its Mother-Baby wing. Gone were the vinyl couches which you may or may not have been able to see the couch frame through holes in them, and in came very nice couches in which the back cushion folded out into a bed "mattress" for Reggie. I put 'mattress' in quotes because my hip felt like it suffered hairline fractures each night I laid on it!

Aubrey has immediately taken to nursing well, which is night-and-day different from HBo, who took over a week to get it. And, boy, does that girl eat! Reggie has lovingly nicknamed her 'Big Gulp' based off the sounds she makes. Laura continues to be overwhelmed with the idea that she truly does have a daughter. Occassionally, you can catch her tearing up while looking at the various outfit choices she can now make!



Ready to leave the hospital!!!

On the last day in the hospital, Reggie apparently caught a stomach bug. Not wanting to get Aubrey or Laura sick, he was essentially banished to the basement for the better part of two days. Luckily, Aunt Jen and Aunt Allison were able to come by and pick up the slack! It's been said before, but we sure are blessed to have our sisters in town with us.



Henry has really taken to having a baby sister, as you can see by the pictures. He commonly refers to Aubrey as "his baby," and wakes up each morning wanting to see "his baby" and give her hugs and kisses. At night, he really likes to hold her for a bit. For as destructive and rambunctious as he can be, he is surprisingly gentle with Aubrey.



One happy big brother!



As expected, Aubrey had lots of visitors throughout the week, both in the hospital and at our home. Grandpa Rick has already started to jockey to obtain the "#1 person to be around" status that he currently holds with Henry (yes, that's right, Henry would rather be around Papa Rick than his own parents).





Papa Rick and Grandma Rosie



Mimi and Papa Craig





Grandma Janith and Aubrey



Aunt Allison and her tired niece



Jennifer Leigh and Aubrey Leigh