Rae 3 month Duck photo

This post is all about the world's best baby girl-Rae. Well I have to start off saying that I'm sorry I forgot to take her 2nd month duck photo. I'd like to say that it was because she turned 2 months during our "spa retreat" week while Otto and Trevor were at the cabin and I was just so blissed out that I forgot but more than likely she is a victim of being a second child. It really is true...there are always less photos of the second child. These duck photo shoots were such milestones with Otto and with Rae I completely forgot one. I am going to turn this into a positive and just say that second babies are stronger for it! But she is such a champ and I will focus on that. That child rarely complains. She fusses on occasion when she is tired and wants to go to sleep. If that is the case I just snuggle her close and give her a pacifier and she falls asleep then I lay her on the bed and she's out. It took her a bit of time to learn to nap on her own not in my arms but she is doing it much better these days. And when she wakes up she is full of coos and smiles. It is adorable. During our week together she would often wake me up by squealing at the fan. I don't think I've ever know her to wake up grumpy. Sometimes she gets upset in the car seat but that is pretty rare. Generally she is happy and giggly and quick to dole out the smiles. She loves to stand on her feet like Otto did and unlike Otto she is a pro at tummy time and really doesn't seem to mind it much. She had her first little laughing spell. It was amazing. Last month on July 21 Uncle John had friends over one of whom was particularly animated and Rae just thought she was hilarious. I was standing up holding Rae facing outward and she just started laughing at John's friend when she spoke and gestured her hands. It was so cute and the whole table of people were all transfixed by her laughter. Luckily we caught the tail end on video. AND Rae rolled over! On August 21 I put her down under the little jungle gym on her back and left the room and when I cam back a few moments later she was on her tummy!!!!! A wonderful achievement and sadly proof that again she is a second child-no one even witnessed this milestone. But that baby was all smiles when I picked her up and told her how proud I was of her. She really is my best baby girl. We all love and are so charmed by our Baby Rae.

Summer outings

We've been trying to get out as much as possible although I have to say now that there are two kids in the house it is often much easier to stay home. But we have done some fun stuff. We went out to a great music and food truck event at Malibu Beach Park. Ali and her friend George came and Sam met us later and then Jay and Jada came out. We spent all afternoon there and had a blast. When we got there the weather was overcast and when we left the sun was setting on a clear blue sky. The picture of Otto sitting on the turtle was taken there. We seriously had a wonderful time and made us want to get to the beach far more often than we do. The photo of Otto, Troy and Morgan was taken at the new super awesome home with a pool in Temecula. Otto had a great time at their house as usual because they have so many awesome toys to play with but this time there was the added bonus of a pool. He didn't go in at first but once he got in it was hard to get him out. I see swim lessons in our future very soon! Another fun little outing we took was just to Trevor's office for lunch. Trevor and I ate Paleo and Otto ate from the food trucks parked outside the building. We sat and enjoyed our picnic on the lawn in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall. Otto had a great time trying to climb it! The last two photos were just too cute not to include. Rae in her I love Mommy shirt and Otto with his Evil Knievel motorcycle that he got from Uncle Mike. As you can see from his expression HE LOVES IT!

What we do at home

We are really getting into the swing of our new routine. Unfortunately Otto is watching WAY more IPad than I'd like but he loves it and it makes him happy and it gives me a chance to tend to Rae. I am allowing it because I know he will be starting pre-school in a few weeks so he won't be able to watch it as much. I'm so torn about school for him. I know he will really dislike it at first...the jury is still out whether he will ever start to like it at all. Trevor and I are going to give him a trial period-if he does not like it after 3 months then we will reassess. And maybe I'm borrowing trouble here. He hasn't even started so I don't know for a fact that he will dislike it but I have a strong hunch! He still does not like to play with other kids and is very shy around new adults and every time I try to talk about school he cries. I'm pretty sure it will be good for him but I don't want to push him toward things he's really not ready to do yet. Ah, I'll report back in a few weeks when he actually starts. The photos are just some of the ones I've taken while we are hanging around the house. Rae in Orange being unbelievable sweet on my lap-this is how we often hang out while Otto naps, Otto helping me give Rae a bath. He typically doesn't help but on this occasion he was feeling social. Otto running down our driveway. I can usually tear him away from the Ipad around 5pm and we usually just go outside and play. On this evening Tam-Sam and Maybe were over and he was being SO CUTE and HILARIOUS just running up and down and teasing me about not letting me take a photo of him. The final photo is of Otto talking to Rae while she is in her chair. For better or worse she spends a lot of time in her chair watching Otto and I play. I think she likes it...I hope she does anyway!

Summer stuff

Summer has been really fun. Trevor was home for the first two months and it was sooooo helpful. I'm not sure if I could have transitioned into having 2 kids any other way. He had to go back in late July but still has every Friday off through August and has been really great about getting home early or on time. It has been staying light until at least 8pm so when he does get home at 6:30 or 7:00 we've been really enjoying ourselves for a few more hours before bedtime. We have been going on lots of walks together (Trevor took the picture of Rae Otto and I on one of our walks) and I will often take the kids out for a walk by myself if he gets home late. The photo of Otto by the fence was one of those walks. He hooked all his airplanes-which he is TOTALLY into now (and spaceships)-up on the fence and was so proud of his work that he ALLOWED a rare photo of himself in front of his airplane masterpiece. The photo of Otto and Trevor on Fisher's motorcycle was taken in front of La Poubelle when we met Fish for a drink one late afternoon. Otto hadn't napped that day so we were really taking a risk by going out to a restaurant but we knew we had Uncle Fishy's Honda Cafe Racer in our back pocket if the going got to too rough. Otto really managed to keep it together and LOVED the sitting on the motorcycle. We also have been having SOOOO much fun with Tam-Sam and Maybe. Sam will come over for a Guinness around 5 and we will all play in the back yard together. I have started a glass of wine a day habit (to help get me through the rest of the evening with these 2 little pumpkins! HA!) so with my wine and Sam's guinness it really feels like a party. Otto loves to spit his sippy cup of water or more often milk all over Maybe so on more than one occasion they will take a bath together at night. I think they both love it. Someone recently asked Otto if he had a dog and he said "Yes, Maybe." I love the definitive maybe but also the fact that he thinks Maybe is his dog. They are best buds. The last photo is of Rae in her whale onesie laying on Trevor's legs. She is SUCH a happy good natured baby who rarely fusses. She makes us want to have a million more just like her!

Mom and Rae and Otto and Dad

Rae and I had an absolutely marvelous time while Trevor and Otto were at the cabin. Before she was born I was so worried about this trip thinking that having a newborn by myself would be really difficult (as it seemed when I was alone with Otto as a wee one). But holy cow, I felt like I was on a spa vacation. I had the most relaxing weekend. Why did I ever think newborns were hard? One baby is a cake-walk! I will say that she is an amazing sleeper so I guess that was one factor making watching Otto as a newborn harder but having a newborn with the stress of not knowing what you are doing makes the task of parenting seem overwhelming. Now that it is old hat having a new baby is a breeze. Anyway, we lived up every moment. We went shopping about 5 times, we walked the resevoir a few times, I went to a party on the 4th of July, we met friends for coffee. I just strapped Rae in the bjorn or put her in the stroller and took off. It was seriously wonderful. Also, I am always so worried that Otto is not playing outside enough or getting enough attention or I'm focused on why he is saying no all the time and not happy and with him gone at the cabin those worries were gone. I knew he was having the time of his life. Anyway our week was truly lovely...just not long enough. HA! The attached photos are of Otto at the cabin fixing Julie's golf cart and Rae being held by Cathy (Ali's mom) at the Chateau Marmont during one of our ladies who lunch outings.

Father's Day, Growth Spurt and Rae's party

Trevor told me as we were eating dinner that night that his Father's Day was one of the best days of his life. I couldn't have been happier! The day started out with the four of us walking up to our local "muffin shop" (as Otto calls it because we typically buy him muffins there-but really it is a Cuban restaurant/cafe). OK...Trevor is taking over now so I can nurse. Otto likes it there because of their wonderful selection of pastries but more importantly because they have a huge bin full of toy cars and planes. He dumps them all over the floor and plays with them while munching on a macaroon....Otto's heaven. I then broke off from the family to get a massage at Raven Spa that Susan gave me for Father's Day....Trevor's heaven. It was great but paled in comparison to what came next. Otto and I went to the 2012 RODEO DRIVE CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE. It's an exotic car show all along Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Otto and I walked up and down marveling at all of the "really fast cars and motorcylces!" Otto sat on a $250,000 motorcycle until we were kindly asked not to. He also loved sitting on the upper deck of a double decker bus overlooking the whole show. We then went to get some food but because we spent too much time on the bus we missed the food trucks and Otto started to get a little cranky. I finally managed to get him to settle for a slice of pizza but he would only eat the dough (he obviously doesn't have much Groth blood in him). As we were walking back to the car he fell in love with a harley davidson and sat on it talking to it gently and caressing it for about 15 minutes. When we got home I grilled up the glorious meat Susan got me from McCalls Butcher shop. We had a fabulous surf 'n turf feast of Copper River Salmon and grass fed New YOrk Strip steak. It was delicious! All of this truly did add up to one of the best days of my life. AWWWWW! I'm so happy Trevor filled in his Father's Day adventures. He did it much better justice than I could have. Ok-I'll finish the rest of the post. Otto is going through a massive growth spurt. He has been sleeping for about 11-13.5 hours per night and taking a 2 hour nap! And he is eating like a champ. The other morning he ate a huge plate-full of berries, a slice of ham, and three eggs for breakfast and had lunch and dinner (I've been cooking a lot of bacon for him which he LOVES and cheers about). Yesterday he ate two whole big cupcakes by himself. Trevor caved into two because our usual little indecisive Otto made a decision of what flavors he wanted so even though he chose two at least he CHOSE! Often we have to walk out of a toy store of bakery with nothing because he can't decide. Anyway, he is eating and sleeping like I've never know him to do so he must be growing fast. We had a little welcoming party for Rae. Tam-Sam, Goa, Uncle John, the Youngs, McKehellers, Morrisons, Lechs, and Stephanie all came over for a breakfast backyard get together. It was the first time we really tried out the playhouse backyard combo and it was a HIT! When the kids got too hot outside they'd just head into the playroom for a little indoor action. We kept the doors open so the adults sitting and snacking on the deck could keep an eye out. It was fantastic! And we have to start doing it more often because we discovered that Otto DOES NOT like to share his toys. He is never put in the position to have to share so it is completely foreign for him to see other kids playing with his toys. He was pretty bad at first then as the day wore on he got a bit better. He never really warmed up and played with the other kids but at least he quit forcing the toys out of their hands. CLEARLY something we need to work on with him...and the best way to do it seems like to have a few more parties! FUN! Rae was a little gem. She slept most of the time and never fussed once. She has been smiling and cooing up a storm lately. I feel like I don't engage her enough. Every time I do she really rewards me with a great smile! We tried to potty train Otto who wanted NO part of it. We took off his diaper and just never put another one on thinking that we could just sort of ease into it but he was on to us in an instant and started bawling for his diaper. Hmmm. Going to be tougher than we thought. I think we missed our window where he was pretty keen on being naked and even trying out the toilet. We just never cleared our schedule to do it and now that we are ready he's over it. Lesson learned. We are re-grouping and trying again in a few months. Other than that life is going along really smoothly. We have a really great routine that sadly will come to an end when Trevor goes back to work...but until then I'm living in the moment and enjoying every second!

Rae's first Duck Photo!

Because Aunt Maria gave Otto the duck as a Christmas present we didn't get a photo of him with the duck at one month old but we decided to take one of Rae at a month anyway. She started smiling a few days before and as luck would have it I got a shot of her smiling with the duck. It was a very fun photo shoot. Rae's very first smile was directed at GOA! I was giving her a bath and Goa came over and asked her in a very soft voice if she was enjoying her bath. Rae looked at her and gave her the sweetest closed mouth smile. We were shocked and thrilled so Goa stopped talking and Rae stopped smiling. But then Goa said something else to her and just the sound of Goa's voice made Rae smile AGAIN! It was amazing. We were jubilant. It was June 5 and she wasn't even a month old! Rae has also been cooing a bit at us. It is very gratifying to see her happy because I don't get to spend nearly the time with her that I did with Otto when he was her age. But she is happy so that is all that matters. Plus she has a big brother who loves her very much. I guess it all evens out. On another note I want to mention how strong Rae is. She has amazing neck control and can already turn her head during tummy time. When we burb her and she wants to keep nursing she is very forceful about laying back down. She has surprising strength. She's just wonderful!

I knew when Daddy was coming home!

The subject line is one of Otto's favorite things to say: "I knew when Mommy/Daddy was coming in/home." He says it when we get him up from his crib or when we come home from being out. Trevor and I say it too and I'm using it now in the subject line to say that Trevor did his week long work stint and now is back on paternity leave for another month! Yippee. We are all thrilled. The week with him gone was pretty hectic. We mostly stayed home and for better or worse Otto watched a lot of cartoons (a new thing as I did not let him watch TV before 2 years old). He LOVES it. Yikes. But honestly I don't know what else to do when I have to nurse Rae every hour or two (really I nurse her every hour for about 10 minutes at a time) and we aren't allowed to go anywhere under doctor's orders until she is 2 months old. The upshot is that we stayed home most of the time and played with toys or out in the backyard. Goa helped enormously! I REALLY don't think I could have done it with out her. Rae fusses when she is not being held and Otto cries and demands that I pick her up if she is fussing! It is pretty tricky to zoom motorcycles or get food ready for Otto or do whatever while holding Rae so Goa has been so awesome by holding her and allowing me to be there for Otto too. It worked out although like I said it was hectic. Otto, Rae, and I did take one pretty crazy adventure out of the house-my first time out of the house with both kids. We initially just left to deliver one of Rae's announcements to Polly, Rob, and Marlowe our friends and neighbors so I put Rae in the stroller with a blanket and grabbed a few motorcycles for Otto and headed out-making a very bad conscious decision to not bring diapers as we were only going for a second. Well Otto was in the world's best mood and wanted to keep walking to the park. I couldn't say no because he was so cute. We got there and played for a while and had a great time. Rae was asleep for the first 30 minutes but then woke up and wanted to nurse. I had a big blanket so I covered up and nursed at the park. No problem. Then she pooped (and had diaper rash) so I felt pretty stressed about making sure she had a clean diaper. I asked Otto if he was ready to leave but he wanted to stay and again was being so great that I couldn't refuse. So I borrowed wipes from another mom and decided to let Rae go diaper-less in the bassinet stroller. Cut to about 2 hours later-poop everywhere-her blanket, pants, my shirt, her shirt, Trevor finally got off work and met us at the park. He and Otto hung out and I walked Rae back to take a bath. HA! It was totally hectic but actually so much fun. Both kids seemed to enjpy themselves too. It was the first time that I really felt I could handle them both on my own. That said I couldn't be happier that Trevor has another month off! I attached a few photos. One of Rae and Trevor napping, one of Otto and Rae in the morning, one of Rae asleep at Goa's, one of Otto and I in our shades on a walk to the smoothie shop-Trevor, Otto, Rae, and I all went which was wonderful, and one of Otto at the LA Department of Sanitation's open house where he got to sit in a bunch of garbage trucks. Pretty awesome!

More Rae info

Rae had her 2 week check up and here are her stats: Weight: 8lbs 7.5oz 60% Height: 22inches 96% Head Circ: 36cm 56% Outside of some diaper rash this check up was great. Dr. Crosby messed with her umbilical cord and it fell off the next day so we are now able to give her baths in the tub which she much prefers to a sponge bath. All was wonderful until 3 days later when Otto caught a cold then gave it to me and Rae. Oh, we are so sad to hear her struggle to breath. She is just so new and little and catching a cold so early is a real bummer but I guess it could be worse. I think it has interrupted her sleep but it is hard to tell because her sleep patterns were fairly irregular anyway. My goal is to have her swaddled in her co-sleeper by 7. I think any later and she gets fussy and hard to put down. At that point she is usually OK until about 10 or 10:30 when she wakes us to nurse. I am mostly nursing her every 2 hours at night still but at least we get 2 hour stretches which is more than I can say for Otto in the beginning! We are managing. She sleeps really well in the morning so depending on how late Otto sleeps in we can all get a few extra z's. Trevor is still home which is incredible. He takes Otto out during the day to play and I stay home and take care of Rae and some housework if I can fit it in between nursing and holding her. Susan stopped to nurse so I thought I would add that even though I feel bad for Rae having her cold it has turned her into the most adorable little piggy in the world because of her pink skin and grunting sounds. I also love her beautiful dark hair which naturally shapes into an awesome mohawk. I love the way that Otto gently caresses her hair and says how cute she is. Their relationship is what I always wanted my children to have with each other.

Visitors

We had a great time with Stacy and Ryan and the twins and once they took off Grandma Deidra, Grandpa Ray, and Aunt Cori came for a visit. It was so fun and festive to have them around. Grandma and Grandpa stayed in Otto's newly built playhouse which was great and I think they enjoyed. Rae enjoyed all the people holding her and Otto loved all the bike rides with Dad and Grandpa. I mostly have been staying home with Rae who is nursing around the clock. She is not as much of an eater as Otto was but I try to nurse every 2 hours during the day and 4 hours at night. Now that my abcesses have healed and the mastitis is gone I'm feeling much better about the nursing frequency. Otto is an absolute DREAM older brother. He always gives her his toys to play with and pats her head or her feet and turns on music for her. He hasn't displayed any signs of jealousy just acceptance and love. It is truly wonderful and I couldn't ask for anything more. He is absolutely going through a bit of a terrible two phase (and has been for a while) but honestly I'll take it as long as he continues to be happy about his new sister. He really is just a wonderful brother! Here are a few photos of the two of them and one of Aunt Cori and Rae and Grandma and Grandpa and Rae.

Otto, Cooper, Tucker

We were beyond lucky to have Stacy, Ryan, Cooper, Tucker, and Goa here to watch Otto so we could stay at the hospital for the full 3 days. We had ZERO worries and Otto had a great time. He really bonded with his cousins and Stacy and Ryan and Goa said he was a cinch and so much fun. Here are 3 cute photos of all the boys together-a pretty hilarious before and after shot of Otto and Tucker and one of all three cousins.

LABOR DAY!!!!-WELCOME RAE!!!!

Wow! May 9th sure was eventful! It started out early. 5 am and I thought my water broke. I called the doc who told me to go to the hospital. So we did. Luckily Stacy, Ryan, and the twins were here to help out. I called my mom (Stacy answered) and asked them to come over to stay on our side to watch Otto and Trevor and I headed to Cedars. We checked in at 7am and the nurses did a bunch of tests and told me that although my water hadn't broken I was in early labor with contractions 10 minutes apart. Their advice was for me to stay close to the hospital because I'd most likely have the baby later in the day. Trevor and I decided to get some breakfast so we went to the SLS Hotel-the most comfortable close by place we could think of. And boy did we ever choose the right spot. When we walked in with our Cedars badges and bracelets the hostess asked us if we wanted a couch or a table and I said that a couch would be wonderful because I was in labor. She spread the word and before we knew it everyone was coming up to us and congratulating us and treading us like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie! They comped our breakfast and kept bringing us what ever we needed. It was an incredible breakfast! Trevor had a meeting scheduled that day-his salary negoiations-and since his office is so close to the hospital and we had time to kill he decided to go and bring me along! I waited in his office and watched Game of Thrones on the IPad and Trevor hopefully got his raise! By the time he was finished I felt ready to get back to the hospital. I checked in and the nurses checked me out again only to tell me that I was only 3 cm dialated and needed to go walk around a bit more to progress things. So Trevor and I did and about an hour later I could no longer stand it. We went back to the room and I made Trevor go get the nurse who checked me and declaired that I was 5cm and 80% effaced and could get an epidural! Yippee! I was so happy. They transfered me at 5pm and gave me the epidural and by 8pm Tsui checked me and said that I should get ready to start pushing. After getting the room ready and all the necessary people gathered I started pushing and about 10 minutes later at 8:56pm Rae Marilee Groth was born weighing 7lbs 9.5oz and was 20in long! She was perfect and was able to lay on my chest right out of the womb. Trevor cut the cord and she started nursing right after being cleaned, checked, and swaddled. What a perfect dreamy day!

Otto: the boy who loves motorcycles

We have a book called Otto: The boy who loved cars. Otto LOVES it and it is totally appropriate. Otto is a boy who loves cars-he either tells me every make and model of the cars we see or asks what they are if he can't recognize it himself...but he loves something even more than cars...MOTORCYCLES. He is obsessed. He can't get enough of them. He loves to talk about them, play with toy versions, point them out when we are driving, sit on them when we walk by, spin the wheels, go to motorcycle shops, he makes motorcycle sounds, knows all the different kinds and most importantly tells us that when he grows up he is going to be a fast motorcycle driver. They are his passion so I thought it only appropriate that I share it on his blog. I've included some photos of Otto on various motorcycles. The first is of Otto on Amador's Yamaha 1100 (Amador is the gentleman who is building our playhouse/screening room), next Otto on Morgan and Troy's ride-on-toy motorcycle cruising up a ramp, Otto on a small motorcycle at the Honda/BMW Dealership, and finally Otto on the rocker Harley that the Deighton's gave us. Otto is truly the boy who loves motorcycles.

Easter

Easter was a massive hit! I bought egg dye about 3 weeks before Easter so Otto knew we'd be coloring eggs and he was really excited about it. I cooked 17 eggs and we took them over to Goa's for some dying. Otto loved it. He colored each egg about 5 times, insisted upon fitting as many eggs as he could into the cups of dye, and spilled at least two cups over. All in all it was great fun for all of us. The next morning, Easter, the Easter Bunny visited Goa and hid the eggs in her house. I was WAY too excited about the hunt and scared Otto. He wanted NOTHING to do with finding eggs. We had to wait about an hour and very nonchalantly mention that we should go look for them. He was hesitantly on board but once he stated the hunt he had THE BEST TIME! We had to hide the eggs about 7 more times before he finally moved on to something new. I made deviled eggs out of our bounty and we headed off to a party and another egg hunt-and this time the eggs were filled with candy. Once Otto discovered the treasures inside the eggs he stopped searching the instant he found an egg and ate all the contents. It was pretty funny. That evening Otto, Trevor, Tam Sam, Goa and I hopped in the car and drove out to the Valley to the closest Olive Garden. Uncle Richard gave us a gift certificate for Christmas that we finally used. It was our first family holiday dinner at a restaurant and we all had a ball and stuffed ourselves silly. The first 3 pictures are of our Easter activities: dying eggs, Otto's Easter outfit from Uncle Fishy, and at the Olive Garden. The picture of Otto and Goa is just a cute one over on her couch that I had to include and the final picture of Otto Trevor and I in bed was taken by Tam Sam one morning. Otto usually wakes up around 5:30 or 6:00am and we bring him into bed with us and all fall back asleep until around 7:30 or 8:00. It is such a wonderful morning ritual that we all love. Tam Sam will bring Maybe in the morning to play in the backyard. We are usually awake by the time she comes over but this particular morning we were all still lazing in bed reading books. I'm so glad because now we have one of the best parts of our day documented!