Vacation 2012

We are home from our vacation and I am finally ready to update!  We left on November 2 and flew to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and drove to Lake Worth that night.  The next day we spent in West Palm Beach with my grandparents, who turn 90 and 98 this month.  It was amazing to see them and to see how well they still get around.  I was so glad they got to see/meet the girls (this was Emily's 2nd time seeing them, Audrey's first).

Sunday morning we arrived in Port Canaveral and Paul and his dad enjoyed a day at Kennedy Space Center.  Judging by the photos, I'd say they saw some amazing things, including the space shuttle Atlantis, which just arrived there recently.  The girls and Granny and I just hung around the hotel and played in the pool- heaven!!!

We left around lunchtime on Monday to board the "cruise boat" (as Emily called it) for our 5 night cruise.  This was our first time and though there are some elements I would definitely change (cabin much higher on the ship than our was, pick a ship with onboard activities for both children, choose a slightly larger room, choose a newer and bigger boat), we had a fantastic time.  The girls loved the experience and had a wonderful time at Cococay and Nassau.  My little world travelers, haha!  I ended up not taking a single photo after we left my grandparents' house-- the girls were just so busy I never had a moment when I felt safe enough to take my eyes off of them.  Luckily my father in law had his camera so we do have some photos of our trip.  We really loved the idea of cruising and enjoyed seeing new places....I can't wait to go again!

Emily is 4 Years and 4 Months Old!

Emily is growing bigger and brighter every day! She is having a great time at preschool with her friends and is learning all kinds of new things.  She also continues to take dance class on Monday nights and was very excited this month to receive her recital costume.  (She wasn't, however, very excited that I put said costume waaaaay up high in my closet for safekeeping, haha!)  Here's a glimpse at what life is like with her right now:

- she is FUNNY! She's really developing her sense of humor now and it's funny to watch her try to make us laugh.  Most of the time she's pretty successful!

- she loves "Healthy Popsicles"-- these Del Monte freezer pops. They ARE really healthy, but I'm pretty sure she'd eat a whole box every day...and I'm not sure that would be so healthy.


- she has been playing her guitar(s) a lot lately, and making up wild songs to sing while she does it.  So funny!

- she wants to help me cook every meal.

- she loves Cinnamon Toast Crunch. A lot.  We're talking, 2- bowls- in- a- morning loves it.

- she's loving this warmer weather and getting to play outside more. :)

- she is super helpful and wants to help bathe Audrey, do laundry, etc.  Mostly everything except picking up her own toys, haha!

 - she adores playing with Audrey and they are (finally!) getting to the point where I can leave them to play with each other for a little while. Emily is loving how Audrey wants to play with her and is always trying to teach her new things.  It's fun for all of us, really!

  Thanks for checking in! Be sure you view the albums to see all the photos from this month.  Have a good day! :)

Emily is 35 Months Old!

It is time for the monthly update AGAIN!  I can safely say that this month has gone by faster than any other month, I think, because this is the month that Emmy became a big sister!  Here's all about our girl this month:

- Of course, the biggest news is the transition to being a big sister.  Emily has adjusted so well to life with Audrey and just loves her so much.  It is so cute to listen to her talk to Audrey and to interact with her- she wants to hold her about every day and constantly talks to her in this sweet, quiet voice. It is so precious!  She invites Audrey to play baby dolls and take baths and gets so excited when they can do things "together" (like drinking their milk together).  It melts my heart!  I am so glad she has this opportunity to have a sibling...I can see them growing closer all the time.  It is truly so special.

- She continues to do big girl things, like going to Eva's birthday party (see post), baking with me, playing in the playground at Chick Fil A, taking Music class at school, etc.  It is so great to see her growing up but kind of bittersweet too- I want her to stay my little girl! Her newest thing is wanting to go to Granny and Grandaddy's house and spend the night...we are actually going to do this in November but she is trying to get me to let her sooner!

- She is saying some really funny stuff right now.  I need to do better with writing it down when she says it because it's hard to remember later, but she says the funniest things! They range from the completely obvious ("Mommy, you are awake?" when I am in the kitchen cooking dinner), to the confusing ("I want to be a T shirt for Halloween!") to the downright hilarious ("You are making milk? That is not ice cream?" when she walked in on me pumping the other day).  She also loves to point out things outside, like cars, trucks, motorcycles, semi trucks, school buses, etc.  She likes stopping at stop lights too, and telling me "Red means STOP.  Green means GO.  Yellow means BEEEEE CAREFUL!!!"  It is so cute!

- She can ride her tricycle all the way down our street and back without stopping now.

- At Eva's party I saw Emily climb a rope up to the top of an inflatable slide and then slide down the 10 foot drop into the pit.  I would have bet she would have been scared to try it, and that when she did try she wouldn't have been able to lift herself....and I would have been wrong on both counts!

- She is doing simple addition now- she will see several items and QUICKLY adds them in her head ("Daddy has 5 toes on this foot. I have 5 toes on my foot!" or "Baby Eleanor [baby doll] has one bottle.  She has another bottle.  Baby Eleanor has 2 bottles!") It is so fun to watch her grow and progress.

- She can string beads on a string now.

- She is starting to be concerned with other peoples' emotions and feelings.  For example, when we get upset and she has to have a Time Out she'll say, "Mommy, you are happy?" Also...if you tell her you're disappointed in her she is CRUSHED.  This girl is sensitive!

- She is also beginning to understand saying 'sorry'.  If she gets in trouble she tells us she's sorry now.  Now, if only she would stop getting in trouble, right?!

- She sings all kinds of songs that she picks up at school.  I know her Days of the Week song, Months of the Year, Show and Tell song, cleaning up song, and many, many more.  It's so cute! She also does "school" with her dolls and it is so precious to sit and watch her interact.

- She can now unlock the cabinets and will move the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs and walk up ALONE.  Gulp.  Our stairs are wooden and unforgiving...this makes me so nervous!

- She has started to show major preferences for things like clothing, hairstyles, etc.  Sometimes she's quite hard to appease!



That's all I can think of right now.  Be sure to check out all of this month's pictures on the Picasa link on the right of the page!!

Audrey and Emily Update

It dawned on me this morning that I haven't posted anything on here in a few days.  Things are going well! I hate to jinx it but Audrey is a really easy baby- eats every 3 hours, then stays awake for a while, then naps.  At night she sleeps QUIETLY in  the cradle next to me and goes about 4 hours in between feedings....so nice!  She has yet to cry for more than about 1-2 minutes at a time...doesn't seem to have the reflux issues Emmy had, etc.  She is doing great!

Emily is doing well with all of this- she is acting out a little bit but we expected that so it's not a huge deal.  I am going to make her a sticker chart today to help with the attitude issues a little-- she has gotten very bossy and doesn't use a nice tone with us sometimes and it lights me on fire to hear her like that....so hopefully the sticker chart will help! Also, she has had a couple weird moments- she took her shirt off constantly at school the other day and also lifted up her shirt and crawled across our cul- de- sac on her hands and knees to our neighbors the other night...hahaha!  Paul and I just looked at each other and burst out laughing...what can you do?!

Overall though, it's going well.  Emmy is SO sweet with Audrey- invites her to take baths with her, play baby dolls, etc.  I am excited for when Audrey can do tummy time and becomes a little more interactive so Em can enjoy her more.  It definitely has been an adjustment but it's not going badly at all. 

Audrey is getting bottles of expressed milk only- I am making close to 30 oz per day so the ratio of foremilk to hindmilk is all wrong for her- we tried the other night for me to nurse her and she only got foremilk and then was UP and awake and grumpy from 2-5a....so we're fine with bottles!  It's nice that someone else can feed her and that we can amass this big supply of frozen milk for when I go back to work.   We bought a deep freeze that is being delivered today...funny the things that excite you as you grow older!! :)

I'll leave you with some pictures...can you tell who's who?!

 

And finally...for your viewing pleasure...I like to call this one, "Look- My Granny walks ME on the leash instead of my dog, Katie!"

34 Week belly...

Here's my 34 week belly in ALL it's glory!

PS- Audrey has a ROOM now!! Paul and I have worked SO hard this weekend on her nursery...just a couple final finishing touches and I'll post pictures.  It's precious!!

"You Haffa CHOOSE, Mommy!"

This morning Paul had to round at the hospital so I had sweet Emmy girl all to myself for the morning.  After playing with EVERY single toy she owns, I think, she found a set of mini-hair claws that I recently bought.  It's a 16-pack: 8 tiny black claws and 8 tiny brown/tortoiseshell claws.  Here's what our conversation sounded like:

Emmy:  "Which one you want, Mommy? You Haffa CHOOSE!"
Me: "Oh...I think I'd like a black one."
E: "NO- we don't have black. Which one you want, Mommy? You Haffa CHOOSE!"
M: "Oh ok...then I guess I'll have brown."
E: "NO- we don't have brown.  Which one you want, Mommy? You Haffa CHOOSE!"
M: "Well, I guess I'll have black."
E: "NO- we don't have black.  We just have brown and brown and brown and brown and brown and brown and brown and brown. "
M: "Then I guess I'll have to have brown."
E: "NO- we don't have brown.  We just have black and black and black and black and black and black and black and black. Which one you want, Mommy? You Haffa CHOOSE!"
M: "I don't know.  Which one do you want me to have?"
E: "You can have black."
M: "OK- black then."
E: "WE DON'T HAVE BLACK!"

FINALLY I got her away from the hair clips, only to have her come back to me with them a little later.  You'll never guess what she said..."Which one you want, Mommy? You Haffa CHOOSE!"
Oh. My. Goodness. This girl is a riot!

Pictures, FINALLY!

Folks, it's been a SUPER long road, but I have FINALLY discovered how to link our Picasa Web Albums (where the vast majority of our photos are stored online), to our blog! If you look over to the upper right side of our blog you will see a heading that says, "Want More Pictures?" and beneath it, it says, "Click here to see our Picasa Web Albums"....well, click it! After over 15 hours of downloading photos (I told you, this was an adventure!) you are now able to see all of Emily's monthly albums, plus Christmas, some vacation albums, pregnancy and ultrasound albums, etc. On the Picasa page you will even find a tag on the right side to show you over 60 videos never before posted on the blog.

YOU. ARE. WELCOME!!! :)

Also- yes, we are back from vacation but no, I have not written about it yet. I am hoping to have a post up today. Be patient! :)