30 months

Dear Lily,

2 and a half years old! Already! I can't believe it! Each month that passes seems to go by faster and faster! I wish I had some magic dust to slow down time! This month you really asserted your independence and tested our patience! We still love you though, and are happy to see you becoming so independent!

A big part of this month has been how your vocabulary is changing. You've always been a talker, and have a very large vocabulary. This month you really took that to a whole new level! We've been having little conversations with you for a few months now, but this month things really took off! Suddenly you were having full conversations with us, demonstrating not only your language skills, but also your memory skills and an amazing imagination! (We've even caught you telling a few lies...uh oh!) You love to just sit and talk about things with us. A favorite thing to do if we've done something exciting that day is to talk about everything we did that day during dinner, or in the car. For an example, we went to the aquarium on Valentine's day, and we had a blast talking on the way home about seeing the sharks, whales, fish and football (the sea lions had a football in their tank...for some reason you fixated on that as the most exciting part of not only that exhibit, but that trip! ). Days later you were still telling me about seeing the whales and the football!

Your memory has really amazed us this month! Every time we talk about Christmas, or see Christmas trees, you talk about Nannie and Papa getting our tree with us this year back in November! I was amazed the first time you recalled that memory to us! And every time you see a helicopter or plane you talk about Grampa B, and the short visit you had at his office last month! In addition to remembering thing related to people and things you love, you also have been memorizing your favorite books lately. You can recite "Brown Bear Brown Bear" all the way through. Just last night Daddy was reading "If You Give A Pig A Party" (for the same author of "If You give A Mouse A Cookie"), and you surprised him by reciting several of the pages, word for word! Now we've only had this book from the library for a little over a week, and have only read it a handful of times! Another fun test of you memory that we've been seeing for several months now is you recognize landmarks when we go places, and know where we are going. You know the routes to Little Gym, the library, and Jon and Becky's, among others!

Along the lines of your growing memory, you've been learning a lot of your favorite songs lately. You've known your ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, and other nursery rhymes or finger play songs for a while now, so that's not new to this month. What is new is you learning more complicated songs like your favorite, Charlie Hope! You LOVE singing along to her CD now! You've been learning every song of hers this month. You've also been learning to sing along to "Tessie" and the other Redsox Drop Kick Murphy songs! You just really love singing right now! Every night before bed now, you and I like to sing a few songs together. Some you know and sing along with me, others are new to you...but you still try to sing along! :) I think this month I will work on teaching you some Broadway and Disney songs!

As I mentioned earlier, this month you have become really independent, and that sometimes has been trying our patience. You love to pick out your own clothes now, and insist on dressing and undressing yourself. Your rain boots have become your regular shoe for this reason. You insist on them, because they are the only shoes you have that you can put on yourself! Most of the time we just let you take the lead, but their are times when we just can't let you go out in some of the silly outfits you pick out. The tantrums that follow when we tell you no are trying, to say the least! These tantrums have been occurring anytime you don't get your way. We're trying hard to not give in and give you what you want. I know you don't understand now that we've got your best interest at heart...but hopefully someday you will!

A favorite new toy in the house has been your wood blocks. We finally opened them from Christmas, and you've been having so much fun building towers and castles. We like to play right along with you, and one of the thing we like to build most together is a zoo to put your animals in, which leads to (hopefully) a bit of pretend play. At least that's the direction I'm always aiming for. Some days you follow along and pretend with your animals...other days you just want to knock down the zoo or castle we've just built together! I don't mind! Both are equally as important to you learning!

The most exciting development from this month has without a doubt been your budding imagination! You've been playing at changing your baby dolls diapers for a while now...but recently this has become way more involved. You talk to your baby and practice all the steps, telling your baby what a big poopy it has, and putting diaper cream on their legs! You are constantly playing pretend with your babies, cooking for them, helping them do forward rolls and rocking them to sleep! Another way we've been seeing you use your imagination is you have started making up your own stories when reading a book to yourself. You look at the picture and make up the story based on what you see. Sometimes if it's a book you are familiar with, you will follow along closely to the real story...but with books you don't know well, you will completely make up what you think is going on! It's very fun to watch!

You continue to love being a big sister. We have to watch you really closely though, because you tend to show your love by being a little rough with your sisters. You just want to pick them up and hold them all the time! You continue to love helping us with them too. You like to help me make their bottles by pouring the water, and shaking it up. And you are always quick to run for a binky whenever they cry!

You totally surprised us this month with learning a phase in French. Out of nowhere you started saying "No tush pop". You're intending to say "Ne touche pas"-"Do not touch". Daddy says this a LOT to you :) and somewhere this month you picked it up and have started saying it all the time. You think it's funny to say that while grabbing for something you know you shouldn't be touching...like the oven door!

As always, we're so proud of how much you've learned this month! It's so exciting watching you grow and learn! We love you so much Lily!

Love,
Mommy

The silly faces of Lily at 2 1/2:

Conversations With Lily

Today Sean took Lily to the library after she woke up from her nap. While pulling up to the library they see a diseased tree with the bark peeling off. She pointed it out to Sean saying "Look at the spooky tree Daddy!" Sean explained to her the tree was sick, and that's was why the bark was peeling, to which she replied "Oh No! The tree is broken!". Sean also explained how the bark was like our skin.

Once they were home from the library, they shared their discovery with me, telling me all about the tree. Lily explained to me in a somber tone "Spooky tree sick! It's so so sad! The tree needs some medicine!" We went on talking about the tree for a while ( and she's still saying every now and then "Spooky tree, it's so so sad!") before moving onto talk about her "yummy tummy dinner".

It's so fun having these conversations with her now. The back and forth, and understanding really make our day sometimes! It's so fun to see a child's logic...if the tree is sick, it needs medicine! This really is a fun age! I look forward to hearing what else she has to say!

Happy half birthday Lily! Look for her 30 month post sometime soon. I'm halfway done writing it, but haven't gotten a chance to take pictures yet, as we are all sick (all but Sean...and Lily is now on the mend thankfully!)

2 Months

Dear Eleanor and Violet,

2 months already?! This first year is already flying by! This past month has been a big one for you both!

The most exciting thing from this month is you both learned to smile! Violet first smiled on January 20th at 5 weeks. Eleanor followed a week later on January 27th, at 6 weeks old. They both are just beautiful! We've noticed different things make each of you smile. Violet, you are very free with your smiles. All we have to do is smile at you, and you shine them our way! Ella, you make us work harder. You grace us with a smile sometimes when we walk our fingers up your legs say "do do do do". The one thing that always makes you smile when you're in a good mood is when you know you are about to eat. You shine us an eager grin right before eating! I guess you really love your milk! I look forward to all the smiles we'll see in the next month, and hopefully hear some laughs!

The other huge thing that happened this month was Violet rolling over 2 days ago on Valentine's day morning! We were so shocked! Daddy was right there watching you both having tummy time, and he says Violet suddenly rolled from tummy to back! Apparently you shocked yourself Violet! I still haven't seen it yet...but I keeping a very watchful eye at all of you tummy times from now on!

You both are doing terrific at holding your heads up too. Eleanor, your neck strength is really great! You can hold you head very steady now when upright, with very little bobbling. You're also using your arms now to push up while doing tummy time! It's amazing how strong you've gotten in such a short time! Violet, I noticed you using your arms to push up during tummy time today! I was surprised to see that! You both are doing a great job practicing your baby push-ups...even though you both hate being on you tummy to play, and scream the whole time!

We had your 2 month well baby doctors visit last week on the 9th. Eleanor was 8lbs 15oz and 22 1/4 inches long. Violet was 7lbs 9oz, and 21 1/2 inches long. Your doctor isn't happy with how slow you are gaining again, so we've been instructed to increase your bottle supplements. It makes me really sad that I can't feed you both fully with the best stuff on Earth, but I know you'll be fine with some formula. At least I'm able to give you some breast milk. You are now getting four 3 oz bottles of formula (or pumped milk if I can pump enough to justify replacing a formula bottle with breast milk!). We strive to keep you on the schedule of bottle at 8am, 12pm, 4pm and 8pm...so every 4 hours. We gave up giving you bottles over night because you both keep sleeping through the night to the point where it's better to nurse you than give a bottle when you do wake up, usually around 2:30am. Also at your appointment you got your 2 month shots. That's always the saddest part of doctors appointments for Mommy. You both cried of course, which made Mommy want to cry. Then you both were pretty knocked out for the next 2 days. You both had fevers, and slept most of those 2 days. I felt so horrible for you two, knowing you were feeling miserable. We were all happy to see you smiling and happy again after a few days!

For sleep, Daddy is still taking you out for drives at night to get you to sleep in your car seats, so I can get your sister Lily to sleep. You both will usually sleep until around 2:30 if we re lucky, then one will wake up, followed by the other with in the hour. Last night you both actually slept till 4:30am...giving us a nice 6.5 hours of sleep! I wish it was like that every night!

We're all so proud of you girls for all you've grown and learned this month! Things are starting to get fun now that you are spending more time awake to play! I know this next month will just be even more fun! I can't wait to see all that you accomplish! Maybe we'll see a first laugh? First babbles? Ella rolling over? I can't wait! We love you both so much!

Love,

Mommy

Eleanor, 2 months old:








Lily and Ella:


Violet, 2 months old:








Lily and Violet:


All 3 of our girls:


The twins, 2 months old:

"Cupcakes? I LOVE Cupcakes!!"

On Saturday Lily and I made Valentine's Day cupcakes. I've been promising her we'd cook together again, and this was the perfect opportunity! Lily was given the special job of decorating the cakes. She had a blast pouring sugar on her little cakes, and taking a taste here and there! She was especially fond of the red sugar, which she poured all over the floor! We have red sugar everywhere...even after sweeping and vacuuming several times! While this adventure caused a lot of extra work for us, it was still worth if for the fun that Lily had! I love cooking with my girl!

Getting started:



"Cupcakes!!!":


Pouring out more white sugar:


Giving the sugar a taste:


"Hey, this stuff is pretty good!" :


"Num, Num, Num":


Back to work:


All finished and time to taste our work. "Hey! This is MY cupcake!":


What a fun and tasty day!

Just a couple pictures

Violet:

Ella:

Just wanted to share a few more photo's. No time to writing anything.

Poop and New Baby!!

We're having an exciting day over here! First, our friends Becky and Jon had their baby boy last night!! Welcome to the world Gage Robert Iain!! He weights in at a whopping 10lbs 4.2oz and is 21 inches long!! What a big boy! Becky is my hero for delivering him naturally with no pain meds!! We are so excited to go meet their new family member soon!

Second piece of big news...Lily pooped in the potty this morning for the first time!! We've been working on getting her to the potty when ever she tells us she gone to the bathroom. She always tells us after she goes though. This morning though I noticed she looked like she was trying to poop, so I asked her if she needed to poop, to which she said yes. So we rushed her to the potty and she finished pooping there! YAY LILY!!! Lets hope this is the beginning of her being potty trained!

"Actually"

Sean- "Lily, What do you want for dinner?"
Lily- "Actually, we need to make brownies!"


Lily's got a new favorite word.."actually". Everything is "actually" this and "actually" that. "Actually, I need a yellow binky", "Actually, I need a cloth diaper", "Actually I need a green balloon"! It's very cute!

What's not so cute is her other favorite word, or phrase rather..."I need". We hear that in regards to everything. We're trying to break her of this habit by explaining that she doesn't need "more milk" (or whatever shes saying she needs) , rather she wants, or would like "more milk" please.Not working yet...but we'll keep trying!

Smiles! And Random

We've officially got smiles from both girls now! Violet's been smiling off an on for a couple weeks now, since I last posted about them. She's now starting to smile a lot more throughout the day. Eleanor started smile last week at exactly 6 weeks old! She still makes you work for them though! I can't tell you how rewarding these smiles are! It's so hard with twins and a toddler to give everyone the attention they deserve. I'm constantly worrying about the girls social development because I just can't play with each of them as much as we did with Lily...so it's reassuring and wonderful to see them both meeting this special milestone right on time!

Here are a few pictures from the last week.

In addition to learning to smile last week, Eleanor perfected holding up her head! We were able to try the Bumbo with her, and she sat up just fine! Lily however was not happy about having to share her chair.


Violet sleepy smiles:


Not happy anymore:


Ella:


Lily pushing Ella around on her pillow:


The girls are cooing a lot more now too....here's Violet cooing:


The girls:


Lily after getting back from shopping. She's claimed my old purse has her own, and brings it with her everywhere. She's also becoming so independent and wants to pick out her own clothes...hence the rain boots in the snow! She always wants to wear those right now. We think it's because she can put them on herself without needing any help!


And finally...Violet smiling!!