She's not always all smiles

OK, so she's not always all smiles. I tried to capture the quivering lower lip in this one, but it just doesn't look the same in pictures. As I am guessing this is a picture she won't be pleased with in the future, I am pasting a cuter picture below.

We officially have another thumb sucker.

She's a Smiler

This isn't really new news, but something we haven't written about yet. Elyse is a big smiler. We don't have to make those ridiculous faces that parents often have to make to get their babies to smile. If you just look into her eyes, she will break out in the biggest, brightest smile. She loves looking at her big sister too. The photo above is from our recent trip to Michigan. The smile on her face there might have been one of pure relief, as she was happy to get out of her car seat after a 16 hour drive.

Anja and Elyse both had a nice time in Michigan. Elyse enjoyed all of the attention of her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Anja loved playing on the beach, swimming, making caterpillars out of oreo cookies, and getting her fingernails and toenails painted by cousin Julianna.

Our next trip is camping at Yogi's Jellystone park (another weekend mostly for Anja and her cousin) and then we are all off to North Carolina for a week out the Outer Banks.

Bathing Beauty

We are constantly amazed at what an agreeable baby Elyse is. We thought Anja was an easygoing baby, and that she had left a pretty high hurdle for her sister, but Elyse has been up to the challenge. She really only cries when she is hungry or has a dirty diaper- and even under those circumstances she is pretty patient until she can't take it any longer. She loves her baths (compare this picture to that of her sister in the June 10, 2007 posting. Elyse isn't even upset by her obviously tight quarters in the bathtub).

Thankfully she is such a patient baby, because it has been a bit of a rough week around here. I came down with a 103 + degree temperature. Given that we had no idea what was causing it the doctor had us wearing masks around Anja and Elyse. And we were holding and playing with them as little as possible. Tests for swine flu were negative. My theory is west nile virus- you can't walk out our front door without getting bitten by a mosquito. I think it is just a matter of time before someone in our neighborhood gets it.

Otherwise, all is going well. We are starting to get the World Cup itch. With the event a year away, we are trying to plan where we could take two small children to see it. Unlike the last World Cup we won't be in the stands, but we are hoping to find some city to travel to that embodies the World Cup spirit.

Finally, we couldn't resist. We found this photo of Anja cute. Her first attempt at fingerpainting.

Vacation

24/7 with the kids this week -- We had a blast, though a five-week-old and two-year-old's ideal vacation week is somewhat different than a 30- and 40-something. So, this was not a week vacation for us, per se, but rather Anja. Her daycare provider took what we have to imagine was a much needed one week vacation. So, this past week gave us a look at what it would have been like all summer had we taken Anja out of daycare and stayed home with both Anja and Elyse. It was a whirlwind of a week!

As this should be a blog of both Anja and Elyse - our tendency is to slip into writing about only Anja because she is the one all over the place - the point of this entry is that this past week was a testament to the fact that it is easier with second children. As noted previously, going to the store was a big ordeal with Anja when she was 5 weeks old. However, Elyse has not only been to the store, but she has been to the zoo, a water park (including a ride on a merry-go-round, possibly not our best parenting moment),

to a local beach (sort of, the sand at National Harbor),

and on the lawn at Wolf Trap, watching Riverdance.

Not to mention, many hours spent by the pool.

After a week of fun, the two sisters are really starting to bond. In fact, Elyse is no longer known only as "baby sister" by Anja, but is now referred to as "Weece"

Happy Father's Day

We celebrated our first Father's Day with both Anja and Elyse in true Maryland fashion- eating crabs! There's not a lot of new information to share for this entry- Elyse had yet another doctor's appointment and she is still a bit jaundiced, but otherwise is perfectly healthy. Looking at her height and weight, she appears to be in a competition with her older sister to see who can be in the highest percentile for height and weight at all checkups.

Elyse has passed the all important month marker- this was the time that Anja seemed to wake up and realize that she could cry. So far, so good with Elyse. She is either peacefully asleep, or has her eyes wide open just taking in all of the new sights and sounds. We are looking forward to all the discoveries our curious little girl will make.

To give you a precursor for our next entry- Anja has been home from daycare all week and it has been quite a roller coaster. We are a testament to the fact that parents are a little more relaxed with the second child. I think it took a month to even take Anja out on an outing to Target. Let's just say, Elyse was on her first carousel ride this week. We decided that it probably wasn't the best idea, unfortunatley the horses were already in motion. More on that next week.

Sisters

Given that Anja nearly always has a cold, she hasn't had a lot of opportunity to interact with her little sister. She seems to be getting better so we are slowly trying to introduce the two. Anja proclaims love for her little sister, but then wants to put the blanket over her head, or fling her out of her bouncer seat. In a subsequent picture to the one on the left, her gentle rocking quickly turned into a hefty push of the car seat. But as quickly as Anja turns on, she calms down and giggles when Elyse lays beside her. She is always quick to help with the diaper changes too-something we will gladly take her up on in the future.

2 Weeks

Well, so far, Elyse seems to be following the same path as her big sister. She is still a bit jaundiced, but getting better. The skies were not too kind to us her first week of life, and there was not a lot of sun to help her get rid of the jaundice. She sleeps very well- in fact we are waking her up for feedings day and night. At her two week appointment, she was just over 8 lbs and 21.5 inches.


Everyone is doing well. Anja seems to like her little sister, although we are not sure she really understands the difference between Elyse and her baby dolls that she drags around the house by their hair. Needless to say, we don't let Anja get too close to Elyse yet. So far Pip is doing well too- but that is mostly because everyone is home with him right now.

We are still trying to figure out who she looks like- she definitely has a much darker skin tone and hair color than either of us (although maybe some of that is the jaundice). Every now and then we can see similarities between her and Anja. She definitely does not have "Hanle hands" which we all think is a blessing!

Happy Birthday Elyse

After a brief hiatus, we have a reason to resume the postings to this blog. On May 21st, Elyse Sierra Schipper was born. She was born at 6:08pm, weighed 7lbs 11oz, and measured 21 inches. As many of you know, we were ecstatic that she was born on the 21st, so Elyse and big sister Anja did not have to go through life sharing a birthday. As you can see below, Anja still was able to celebrate birthday (don't tell her that this picture was actually taken on June 1st- we'll do better next year).