Family pics, end of February

Some photos from the last half of February.

As we saw earlier, Auggie learned how to make play dough "gardens" at Antonia's birthday party.  He absolutely loved making these and continued to do so for months. Here's another one, with nature "treasures" gathered in our back yard. 

Our friend Margie came to visit and Ella immediately found a cozy spot in her arms.  

Family time in the evening. Auggie is wearing his "big brother" outfit, which he changed into after coming home from school every day, so as to protect Ella against all the circulating winter preschool germs. 

Decorating with googly eyes and stickers are some of Auggie's favorite crafting activities.  

Tummy Time!!!

Giggy and Keggy are especially being missed at about this time, so we try to do lots of FaceTime:

Auggie getting ready for Valentine's Day

Auggie loves shiny stickers, hearts and making gifts for his friends, so we figured that Valentine's Day was going to make him pretty happy. We were not disappointed.  His favorite part of Valentine's Day was the night before, where he got to decorate cards for all of his classmates in Cedar classroom.

Week 4 - Ella waking up more, first smiles, and Auggie gets a haircut!

In her 4th week of life, Ella started to wake more, look around her surroundings and even smile at the ceilings and walls that were clearly flirting with her all times of and night.  Meanwhile, Mama had settled into maternity leave, ordering increasing numbers of bibs and burp cloths for this "happy spitter".

 

Meanwhile, Auggie went to get a much (much) needed haircut. Unlike his last professional heaircute months (years?) ago, he quite enjoyed this visit, especially since there was a lollipop at the end.

Before

After (with some chocolate ice cream to celebrate)

Brother and sister getting ready for bed

Ella's bedroom wall with pictures Auggie made decorating it

Morning cuddles are especially necessary with a new baby in the house: 

Ella's weeks 2-3

The new Hamilton-Witkowski family of 4 settled into the routine quite quickly and were soon out and about exploring the world.  Ella continued to eat well, sleep lots, and have some very expressive yawns!

Auggie enjoyed a visit from his "bestie" Maya, who had some experience being a bigger sibling, and showed him how to ignore the little baby and just have fun. We subsequently braved places like IKEA, the Bay Discovery Museum and a crafting shop for our friend Antonia's 6th birthday party, despite this year's scary flu season keeping us quite vigilant about the germ theory.  Auggie had a blast at Antonia's party and learned how to make a play dough "garden", an activity that would spark many more projects in the future.

First family trip to IKEA

It's California, so not too cold, but she's also bundled up to keep random excited little hands from touching her!
Flu 2018 sucked, but we also successfully avoided it!

Because of some very sharp but small nails, Ella was confined to hand mitts for the first few months
(after Mama drew blood on the first attempt to cut her finer nails!)

Ella can sleep anywhere...

..and in any position

Auggie showing off face painting he got at school, from one of his favorite teachers, Jeb.

First walk in the baby carrier

Drawing on the wall at the Bay Discovery Museum

Sleeping on Mama's carrier at the museum