2 Months

 The time definitely goes quicker with the second baby! I can't believe she's 2 months old already! She's still such a laid back, easy baby. She eats about every 2 hours. She has been sleeping a 6 hour stretch, eating, then another 3ish. This is amazing for me, since Asher didn't sleep that long until he was a year old!

 I love how alert she has become. She just coos and smiles at me.

 Asher loves his baby sister! He kisses her and loves to lay on the floor with her. However, he is a two year old boy, so he quickly gets a little rowdy and we have to re-direct him. But I love watching their relationship grow.

I may be slightly prejudice, but I'm pretty confident these are the cutest faces ever.

Words can not express how much I love this girl! She makes having a baby seem easy.

She came into our family and fit perfectly. It's only been 7 weeks and it seems like she's always been here. This girl is so chill....I didn't know a baby could be so calm. She actually sleeps in her pack n play...not my chest. She also actually likes her swing. I expected her to be so time consuming. I expected to feel like I was cheating Asher. I expected to feel like I had no one-on-one time with Asher. I couldn't have been more wrong. Of course there's been changes. Asher plays on his grill and cooks me dinner while I feed Annalise. I still manage to read to Asher before bed some nights, but Chris takes over others.

 I enjoy my time alone with Annalise while Asher naps...sometimes stealing a nap with her for some sweet rest and cuddles. Life is busy....I'm taking a  little time to relax and I try not to look around too much....my living room is strewn with toys, my kitchen is cluttered with dirty dishes and there's a pile of clean towels on my bed waiting to be folded. I've had to accept the fact that my house may not be clean at all times anymore, but my heart is full and I'm okay with it (some of the time). Our family feels complete and I love it. I love watching Asher with Annalise and I love watching Annalise's personality come to life.

Conversations with a 2 year old

I love hearing Asher's thoughts and opinions. We've had some great conversations lately, and I just don't want to forget them so I'm putting them here.

We were driving home the other day and I could tell he was getting sleepy. So I was talking just trying to keep him awake when one of my favorite Sanctus Real songs came on the radio.
Me: Oh, I like this song. It's one of my favorites. Do you like it Asher?
Long pause....
Asher: uh...I like Up Up Up can you play Up Up Up?? (That would be the new Fall Out Boy song)

I didn't really expect him to start demanding which music we play already, but he does fairly often.


Chris gave Asher a handful of coins from Taiwan to play with the other day, along with a quarter.
Asher: (holds up the quarter) is this George Washington?
Chris: yes
Asher: (holds up a Taiwanese coin) is this George Washington?
Chris: no
Asher: Is it Papa? (Papa is what he calls Chris' dad)
Not sure who's on the Taiwanese coin, but I'm pretty confident it isn't Chris' dad.

Today we were going for a walk and there is currently a plague of grasshoppers on the paths that we walk. They literally cover the paths and jump towards you and into the grass as you walk. We were at the end of our walk so Asher is out walking in front of the stroller. He wanted to run so he's running in front and I'm jogging behind him, so he's dispersing all the grasshoppers as he goes and he yells 'Scuse (excuse) me, Scuse me bugs! Asher's running!'


I'm so loving this age! He makes us laugh constantly and keeps us on our toes. Our life would be so boring without him!

Also, I adore this picture because it captures him so well....and the fact that he rarely stops moving!

Annalise

Here's a few of Annalise's newborn photos. We're so happy with them! And of course, Asher jumped in a couple as well!

Brother-Sister Love

The question I get asked most often is 'How is Asher handling the baby?' It seems like everyone expects there to be jealousy and sibling rivalry already. However, there has been none of that. He handles it perfectly. If we move Annalise when he's not in the room he comes in and immediately asks 'Where's baby?' He seems to ignore her for the most part, but he likes to keep tabs on her. And as you can see from the pictures, he loves on her a few times a day. 

He tells me when she needs a binkie and when she needs a drink of water (no, we don't actually giver her water but he seems to think that's what she wants if she cries).

It makes my heart so happy to see them together and see him loving on her. I'm so happy to watch their relationship develop over the years.

8 years.....

....9 moves, 4 states, countless vacations and day trips (from Boston to Taiwan), and 2 kids later-I would pick him every time. There is no one else I would want by my side than this handsome guy. I had no idea the journeys we would take but I have enjoyed every bit of it! I  can't wait to see what the next 60 years hold!

Last Family of 3 Day

Two days before Annalise was born I had to go to Kansas City to get an ultrasound just to check everything out. Of course, everything was fine, but we decided to make a day of it. We knew this would be the last big family day before we added one more; plus, I really needed to take my mind off of the fact that I was still pregnant! So after the ultrasound we headed to Crown Center and ate at Fritz and then followed that up with a trip to the aquarium. 

 He loved watching the trains bring the food and go all around the restaurant.

 Asher thoroughly enjoyed the aquarium. He currently loves turtles so he really enjoyed the new turtle room.

I really enjoyed our day together. Asher is such a joy and at such a fun age. I love hearing his thought processes and watch him becoming a little person. We had a blast just being enjoying our family of 3. Now we get to add Annalise to the next day trip!

June Highlights

Since I unintentionally took the summer off from blogging, I figured I'd just do highlights. Our summer has been pretty full-that combined with being pregnant and chasing a two year old pushed blogging to the back burner. Chris was also working in Nebraska the majority of the summer, which left me with Asher during the week. We kept really busy with baby showers and family stuff. It's been so great being back with family, but so busy too!! So here's some highlights from June:

 

My baby turned 2! How did that happen?? I really love this age. It's so much fun to watch him figure things out and and hear his take on everything. He had a blast at his party and his tractor from Papa Leo was definitely a big hit!

 

We spent his actual birthday at home starting with giving him his bike first thing. We then let him watch Cars for the first time. And we had pizza for dinner. All in all it was a pretty great day!

 I spent yet another amazing week at Camp Rainbow in the middle of June. This was the first time I had left Asher over night with anyone. It was definitely harder on me than him! He spent a few days with his Aunt Allison then Chris came back into town and took over.

 We had an amazing group of campers and counselors this year at camp. I think it was one of the smoothest years we've had!

Asher got to do all kinds of fun things with Aunt Allison and Elijah-they spent time at the lake and the zoo!

 At the end of June I got to meet my first Niece! Chris' sister welcomed Ella Grace into the world. Ella and Annalise are 1 month apart. I love that they'll have each other to grow up with!

 And just for fun I'll end it with this cuteness! He loves to be read to and look at books--I'm hoping he stays that way!

Each of these events could and should easily be their own post, but highlights will have to do for now!

Annalise Zhu-Ai Liu

I can't believe she's already a week old! Time sure flies, and it seems to go even faster with baby number 2. I wanted to get her birth story written before the details fade.

I was 12 days past my due date, and none too pleased about it. I had been having some contractions for a week or so, but nothing that ever stuck around or got strong. On Saturday evening I was having some contractions and really praying they would turn into something more. By 11:30 I was pretty sure this was the real thing and not just more braxton hicks. I sent out the mass texts necessary to let everyone know it looked like we'd be meeting Baby Liu soon. I made the arrangements for my brother to come and get Asher at 6:30 am since that's when he wakes up and we didn't see any need to make him get up in the middle of the night. I was in labor with Asher for about 12 hours so I told myself it would be about the same this time. I went ahead and tried to doze in bed between contractions. The contractions were definitely in my back as well this time. So I tried to change positions and get baby girl to move around but didn't have much luck so the back labor continued. I managed to lay down and doze on and off until around 1:30 am. At that point I started to get things ready around the house because it was apparent this was the real thing. At 2:00 am the contractions really started to pick up. I woke Chris up to have him put a fan in Asher's room to drowned out any noise. Then I had him move our coffee table out of the living room so I could labor on the birthing ball and later set the tub up there.

By 3:00 am labor was in full swing and I woke Chris up again telling him it was getting real and time for him to help. I called the midwife and told her my back labor was really bad and getting serious. She told me to get in the shower for some relief and she was heading over. I called my sister and told her it was time and she headed right over as well. The shower definitely helped but I still wasn't able to get rid of the back labor. The midwife and her assistant arrived by 3:45. After watching me during a few contractions my midwife decided we probably didn't have time to set up the birthing tub. It takes about an hour to set the tub up and my midwife didn't think I had that long. Labor was definitely picking up and seemed to be going quicker than it did last time. The midwife and her assistant set everything up in our bedroom. As labor hit the final stretch the midwife really helped me work through the contractions along with the back labor that just wouldn't let up. She was so encouraging with different positions to try and ways to get through it. Once I started pushing it wasn't long at all-maybe 15 minutes. Annalise was born at 5:34 am and laid immediately on my chest. It was the most amazing feeling to have a newborn again just like that. The first thing my midwife said when she saw Annalise was, that's a big baby! She weighed in at 8lbs 4oz 21 inches long. She's quite a bit bigger than her brother and even already has chub! She nursed right away and has continued doing great! I loved having the home birth experience! It was so nice to not have to be in the hospital after she was born and have nurses in and out all the time. We were able to just relax and be in our own home.

Getting all measured and weighed

 Asher woke up about 7am to a new baby sister. He didn't care a whole lot, but gave her a good look over. He now loves to rub her hair and hold her hand. It warms my heart so much seeing them together. Of course, he's 2 so he can get rough at times, but it's clear he thinks she's pretty great!

 Asher meeting his new baby sister!

Annalise is seriously the easiest, sweetest baby! She's so laid back and will sleep in her pack and play for a few hours--which Asher never did. It's so strange to have such a laid back baby after having Asher, who was kind of high maintenance!

We're loving being a family of 4! Our hearts are full to over flowing and we're enjoying the precious days getting to know our new baby girl.

Cousins

This makes my heart so happy.

 

One of the reasons we wanted to move back, really the main reason, was to be close to family. Asher loves his Lij so very much! I love watching them together and love that they are really getting to know each other. Asher is a very shy little guy. Each visit has been rough because everyone loves him so much and wants to hold, play, and love on him. But he wants nothing to do with them, because he doesn't remember them. He's finally getting to really know and love all our family. Every day he asks for some family member. When I go through who we'll see that day he even tries to bargain and add other family members in there! I love it!

Wedding Weekend

This weekend was Chris' brother's wedding. It's hard to believe that Dalton is all grown up and married now!! We had a great weekend celebrating with them.

Asher enjoyed sharing his snack with the pigs during the rehearsal.

 Practicing his corn hole skills while we waited for things to get under way.

 Asher tried his hand at the ring bearer gig yet again.And yet again, he decided there were entirely too many people watching and had to be carried down the aisle. At least he looked incredibly cute!!

 We couldn't have picked a more beautiful and perfect girl for Dalton. We're so happy to have Katelyn as part of the family!

The wedding was absolutely beautiful and the ceremony was perfect. There may have been 60mph wind during the reception, but they made the best of it!

The Big Move

Well we made the big move from Colorado to Missouri! Asher did amazing for the 12- hour car ride. He was entertained by Uncle Dalton, whom he now calls Uncle Doe-Doe. We've been so busy combining all our stuff from Colorado with our house in Missouri. We've never lived here with Asher so we had to completely clear out the office and officially make it Asher's room. I feel like we've been going 1000 miles an hour for the last week. We're trying to squeeze tons of projects and unpacking in before Chris starts his new job. We've made a ton of progress, but it's hard to not look at everything else that still needs done. I don't have a lot of pictures from the move and  the past week. I've been busy wrangling Asher and keeping him out of the way!

 Aunt Katelyn, Uncle Doe-Doe and Asher at REI

Saying good-bye to Uncle Ben. It hasn't really sunk in yet that we won't live within walking distance of each other for the first time in 4 years. Asher will seriously miss his Uncle Ben! And Chris and I will miss our movie and dinner buddy!

27 weeks

Seeing as how I've been so bad at updating here, clearly I haven't posted much about the pregnancy. But things are going great! Our little girl is growing strong and I can feel her dancing all day! Here's our 27 week photo....Asher needed in the pic-his belly is filled with 2 peanut butter sandwiches! That kid can seriously eat!!