J o e y & A l e e t h e a: our new life with 2 kiddos

As I told one of my dear Etsy friends today: I'm currently living in a little place called "no time for actual sentences, one-handed typing, nursing non-stop, chasing joey round, running to sew during the 4 hour stretch when Lily sleeps at 2am, adjusting to life w/2kiddos" land.

I've been blogworld MIA, and I miss my little blog and also my visitors so much! OK I'm feeling a super long post coming up.

Life with Joey & Aleethea, and now sweet Lily too, is quite busy to say the very least. My sweet baby Lily is one month old today, and Joey is 26 months. Here are some photos from this past very exciting month, a look into our new life with 2 kiddos, 2 years apart...and a dog.

This is a shot of me in labor, in between contractions. This is my labor doula Maggie, isn't she cute? She's sneaking me some yummy antipasto salad. Pay no attention to the hospital gown, and please try to ignore my super goofy face. That's if you can, I know it'll be difficult, but try. We were having so much fun:

And this is what I looked like during a contraction...laboring while sitting down on the birthing ball with the Hubbs Joe rubbing my back :

Fast forward 14 hrs of labor...Lily Alexandra arrives:

weighing 9lb 6 oz!!:

And our lives forever changed. And I was so happy to get Lily out of that pink and blue striped hospital-issued hat! Just because I had to wear the hospital gear, that doesn't mean she had to. :) Here's the newborn hat I made for her:

I love this photo of the moment Joey first met his baby sister:

Lily was only 12 hours old here, and Joey ran up to us and gently climbed up on the bed and said "I kiss the baby". Then I asked him "What are you going to tell your baby sister?", and he replied "Hi, I'm Joey, big brova." Ugh, now I'm gonna cry. :)

Here's my mom holding Lily, her 8th grandchild for the first time:

Lily's skin and hair is much darker than Joey's was when he was born:

We finally sent out Lily's birth announcement...but it was so difficult choosing which picture of her to use!

I almost used the above photo with Lily in her Amy Butler onesie for the announcement because her cheeks look so puffy and I think that's just so sweet. But I ultimately decided on the below photo instead because it's so bright and happy, I totally love her expression in it, and her face looks extra lovely. Plus I also think she looks so completely adorable in that dress I made for her! The Hubbs Joe and I designed the announcement together, and I did the graphics for it - I really love how it turned out, and I especially love that we designed it ourselves. Lily was only a day old in this photo, but doesn't she look weeks older?:

I love dressing Lily in the elephant gear I've made for her. It reminds me of how big my belly was while pregnant with her, and also how she weighed 9lbs 6oz at birth which I find to be pretty darn amazing!:

She looks so sweet in orange.

Well, now that my mom went back home, I'm back to doing my own laundry again...but now I have some company hanging out on top of the dryer while Joey and I load the washer:

My mom (Yiayia) and my sister-in-law (Titi) did so much for us while they were here, the Hubbs Joe and I got so spoiled! Here's the Hubbs Joe with his sister and Lily:

My mom was here for six weeks, and my sister in law flew down here in early May for Joey's birthday and then again in June for Lily's birth. How awesome are they? They cleaned our house from top to bottom, they shopped for us, they helped take care of Joey, and they cooked up a storm for us everyday.

Speaking of storms, it thunderstorms every afternoon/evening these days. This is Joey's indoor view of our life in this tropical rain-forest called Orlando. I find this view very beautiful and calming:

It's a good thing Joey puts on his froggy boots while still in his pajamas, and gets his rubber ducky every morning from his hiding spot...cause ya just never know:

And yes, we dress our son in vintage Daffy Duck shirts, super bright pants, and pretty much the funniest outfits to sleep in. The Hubbs Joe and I just like giggling at who dresses Joey the silliest at night. Cause that's how we roll.

Here's what we like to do when it doesn't rain. This pic is from the first day of summer...this is the smallest inflatable kiddie pool ever, but Joey loves it, he had so much fun showng us how he swims. "Look Mama, I swiminey, look Dada, see?":

Aleethea got in on the action too. She's such an awesome dog and she loves Joey so much, and is very protective of him and Lily too:

While Lily and Yiayia relaxed on the swing:

Here's Joey, super excited when his Dada put him up in a tree...he's such a lil monkey sometimes:

Would you like to hear what Joey said to us the other morning? He had just woken up, he sat up in our bed and these were his first words...the Hubbs Joe jotted them down so that we wouldn't forget what Joey said: "Dada, Daaaaada! I'll be right back in two minutes (*as he held up 2 fingers*). The puppy (*his stuffed animal*) fell underneath the bed. I'm going to go underneath Mama, and underneath "babymu" and get puppy. Stay here (*with his hand out, palm facing us*).

Joey is such a character, he refers to Lily as "babymu"...which means "my baby" in Greek. How cute is that?? And he speaks sentences to us as if he wasn't only 26 mos old. He is such an amazing lil monster.

Happy first month to our newest little monster, Lily: