Getting our groove back

This is my second weekday on maternity leave, and I've been working hard at establishing a routine. We all get up at about 6am (thanks to B, the early bird). We all hang out in our bed for awhile, while Z has a bottle and M & I enjoy our coffee. M goes to work, and Z and I take B to preschool. When Z & I get home, we have a nice big breakfast (she's turned into a bottomless pit, and eats for as long as I put food in front of her). Next we take a walk to get some sun, then come home and play for awhile. Lunch is at 11:30, and is followed by a bottle and a nap. Today she's napping in her own room (as opposed to in the pack-n-play in our room). I'm hoping this works out, as we're not getting much sleep with her in our room. Every peep she makes wakes us up. The routine for the afternoon is still fluid, since there's been a lot going on. Z puts on her jammies & has a bedtime bottle at 7, and B gets to stay up until 7:30ish. Everyone is in bed by 8.

Unfortunately, it seems to be part of Z's routine to wake up for the day at 9:50pm. We don't think that's such a great idea. She's settling down faster though -- the night before last she was up for an hour, but last night it was only half an hour. I honestly don't remember what happened the first two nights we were home. It's a blur.

When we arrived at preschool on Monday morning, all of B's friends had been watching for us out the window. When we got to his classroom, they were all standing in the doorway. They were so excited to meet Little Z! B just glowed with pride. It was really cute.

Z is beginning to expand her culinary horizons beyond ham and eggs. Last night she had Spanish rice, and this morning she ate oatmeal. I still haven't seen her willingly and knowingly eat a vegetable, but I have a sneaky plan that I'm hoping will turn that around. Today at lunch, I mixed her mac-n-cheese with pureed squash. She never knew the difference -- sucked it down just as fast as she did on Sunday with veggie-free mac-n-cheese. I'm hoping that she'll develop a taste for veggies with my puree trick, and will eventually eat actual vegetables. That's never been a problem with B. He's been a champion eater since day one, always willing to eat any vegetable or fruit. Z still won't drink anything but formula (I've tried juice, water and milk), but I'm tricking her on that front too. I've been putting a couple ounces of milk in every formula bottle, and I'm going to increase it bit by bit until she's drinking just milk.

I'm off to take a little nap now. It has now been a full week since I got a decent night's sleep, and I'm feeling it.

To tide you over until I find another moment to post, here are more pictures from the night we got home. These were all taken by my family. I haven't downloaded the pictures I've taken on our camera over the past few days because the USB cable is in M's computer bag at work. He says he'll bring it home tonight, and I'll get some more recent pictures up soon.