It's been a while

There's a lot I could write about, but I am bouncing a baby on my knee as I type, so I will keep this short.

We had a great vacation with my family at the beach last week, even though it was pretty chilly.
 

In the interest of full disclosure, this picture was a little staged. I just may have stripped my children's long pants and sweatshirts off of them on the freezing, windy beach for the obligatory swimsuit photo. Needless to say, Essie is missing from the shot.

They did play on the beach every day, though, and we discovered Clara loves sand. 'Love' actually doesn't even begin to explain it. You know how you think sand is gross when it gets in your mouth? Ya, Clara doesn't feel that way.

I wish I had taken a photo of her slithering along the beach on her stomach. She had us in hysterics.
 
We were there for Easter Sunday, and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to photograph my kids in their Easter clothes, although not everyone was as excited about it as I was.

You may notice I got my hair cut. I actually chopped ten inches off! In a rush to get out the door to Mass on Easter Sunday, I didn't do my hair in the above photo, so here's a little better shot of it (and yes, I forced the kids to take more than one family pic!)...

A highlight of the vacation was getting to meet my new nephew, sweet baby Joey. He is such a handsome little guy and happens to turn two months old today. 

The kids had an absolute blast playing with their cousins. And, like I always say, I really wish we lived closer to them.

As soon as we got to the beach, we thought Essie had bronchitis or RSV or some other terrible illness because she kept having coughing fits. I even took her to an urgent care while there. Turns out it was reflux, most likely caused by my switching to cheap bottles that weren't getting ridding of air bubbles. Bad mommy. But all is good now. At least we're hoping.

She's still loving to nurse a couple times a day for comfort, especially when she is tired and wants help getting to sleep. It's perfect. I'm so content with our nursing situation and I love that she needs it/me.

Luke is very into baseball lately, which Ryan and I are more than happy about. He fell in love with it while playing wiffle ball with the big boys on the beach, and now he loves to practice hitting in our backyard (sans tee.. we're big time).

He's okay and has made contact a bunch of times, but his sister is a natural. Oh my goodness, Clara is something else. And she's so good that she can't be bothered by it. We might convince her every couple of days to take a turn, she hits every pitch and then just stops, completely unfazed. We're starting to think she might be an athlete.

And then there's this girl.

She's getting SO chunky, in a perfect way. Her big blue eyes sparkle more every day. She is smiling and laughing and interacting and we fall more in love with her every second. She is just precious. A precious, precious little soul.

And have I mentioned she's been sleeping through the night since she was seven weeks old??

This girl is a dream. A beautiful, doll-like little dream. (And I've decided, as an adoptive mom, I am allowed to brag about things that I can not take credit for, like her good looks, and her sleeping prowess). 

Well, I didn't really keep this too short. And, it turns out, Essie is currently fast asleep in her bed while #2 is now awake and on my knee as I type (case in point, that kid's poor sleeping I can take credit for). Hopefully another three weeks won't fly by before I'm back here again!