23 Months

Dear Lily,

Wow, what a busy 2 months you've had! Every month I say it, but these past 2 months you've really learned a lot. I don't know if I'll be able to remember all the new stuff you've been doing! You've become a full fledged toddler!

One of the most exciting things you learned to do last month was to count to 10!! I can not believe my baby can already count to 10! This happened for the first time on July 11th. You were walking around with your baby doll, and all of a sudden, out of no where, I heard you say "1, 2, 3, 4, 5"! You were doing this over and over again. I quickly got Daddy's attention so he could listen too, and we asked if you could repeat yourself. That time you counted up to 9 by yourself! Wow! We were so impressed! Then the next day on the phone with Nanny you counted for her all the way up to 10! Counting has become on of your favorite things now! While out to breakfast last weekend, you enjoyed counting all the cups on the table. This is what is amazing me. It's not just that you have memorized a string of words, you've learned how to apply it! At breakfast you had two cups, one with orange juice, one with milk. You would could "1, 2. Two cups! 1 apple juice, 1 milk!" (you thought you were drinking apple juice, but really it was oj!) You would point to each cup as you were counting it. Then you counted up all the cups on the table, and then all the juices, and all the waters. I tried to sneak in a little math lesson when you were doing this, by adding and subtracting glasses from the table, but by that point you were more interested in the guy at the table behind us. Oh well! It really was so interesting to watch you start to apply these new skills of yours though!


Your other favorite thing to count is bottles in the shower. Every time you take a bath now, you line up the shampoo and body wash, and count them! Usually you count each thing several time until you get to ten. Now I'm not going to say you are a genius, and have a full grasp of your numbers up to ten yet (though I am a very proud mommy, and of course think you are very smart for your age!). Sometimes you don't always get you numbers perfect. This last week you've been skipping a couple numbers when you count. You've been skipping 5 and 6 the most often. I'm sure you'll stop skipping numbers soon though! You must just be busy working out something new in that head of yours!


The day before you started counting for us, you out of the blue started singing the "A,B,C''s" to me! You were walking around the kitchen while I was doing dishes, and all of a sudden sing "now I know my A, B, C's" and you kept repeating this line over and over again! I was so shocked that you knew that part of the song, as you've never sang that part with me before! Usually when I sing the alphabet with you, you'll catch a few letters here and there. Usually you can sing B, L, P, S, T, V, X, Y, Z if I pause to let you say the letter yourself. You had never sang any of the end part with me before though, so it caught me by surprise that you knew it! Since you did that a couple weeks ago, we've been singing the alphabet a lot more during the day, and you've been able to string a lot more letters together now! You can sing "A, B, C, D" all by yourself, and have been working on the "L, M, N, O, P" string. You love singing this song with me!

Her "Oh No!" Face:



Singing has actually been a big theme for you in the last 2 months! You've been learning all your favorite songs. You can sing a lot of the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" by yourself. Your even doing a lot of the movements by yourself! Some of your other favorite songs to sing are: "Sing a Song", "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", "If you're happy and you know it", "Happy Birthday", and all the songs from Little Gym. I love seeing you sing!

Speaking of Little Gym, you've graduated to the next class! One of these days I'll get around to editing all the pictures and video from your last class as a bird, so I can share them with the blog! Now you are in the beast class! You've been thriving so much in your new class! You have new friends (and an old one from our very first session of classes, who graduated to beast before you did. You loving having Robert back in class with you!) You've been learning a lot of new skills in class. Balance beam has always been your favorite part of the gym, and you've been getting so good at it lately! Now I only need to gently spot you under the elbows. I think pretty soon you'll be able to walk by yourself for a short distance! You've also gotten really good t swinging on the bar. Last weekend you stretched really far and reached for the bar from a stacked mat and swung by yourself! We all were very impressed! One of the funniest things you've started doing in the new class is a change to how you do the warm up. You use to walk and run on the big red mat holding our hands. Now you like to run all by yourself, in a tight circle right in the middle of the mat, while all the parents run around you! Daddy and I like to joke that you think you're doing the warm up more efficiently by running in the middle...you get in more laps than we do! You've also become somewhat of a teachers pet in your new class. You like to help Miss. Lori put away the parachute every time it comes out, and you always help her sing the songs. You even sit next to Miss. Lori at the end of every class now to sing the goodbye song! Daddy and I don't think you'll ever sit with us at the end of class again! You also like to give Miss. Lori hugs, high fives, and lead her around the gym. It's great that you really look up to her now, considering when we started classes at the gym you would clam up whenever Miss. Lori gave you her full attention!


You're diet has been pretty finicky lately. We try to get you to eat veggies and good things with each meal, but unless it's peas, corn or tomatoes sauce, it's hard to get a veggie into you belly. Your favorite food is still cheese. You wont let a day go by without eating one stick. You've also really become a fan of watermelon. Whenever you see it, you want some! You're new favorite meal has become turkey and cheese sandwich with mayo (you LOVE mayo!). If I give you the sandwich whole, or cut in half, you will only eat the bread with the mayo on it. I've learned though that if I cut it up into fun shapes with cookie cutters, you will eat the whole thing! You ask for this sandwich for lunch almost every day now! Some other favorites are grilled chicken, veggie dogs, meat balls, spaghetti, scrambled or fried eggs, and cheerios in milk. And as always you love most fruits. Though I did try to get you to try a kiwi a few weeks ago, and it scared you for some reason. Usually you are really good about trying new things though. The other day we were out to dinner and you saw the broccoli on my plate and started reaching for it saying "TREES!! TREES!!" I gave you one to try, and you thought it was so funny that you were going to eat a "tree". Unfortunately you didn't like it, and spit it out, but we were very proud of you for trying something new!



Swimming has become an activity you love. Every time you take a bath now you get on your belly and move around like your swimming while saying " I'm swimming!! I'm swimming!!" The other weekend we were trying to figure out something to do, and you come running into the room with a swimmy diaper and your bathing suit saying "I wanna go swimming!!". We thought that was a great idea, so we all got ready and took you to the local YMCA camp that has an outdoor pool. You had such a blast in the water! You did a really good job kicking and paddling your arms, and holding onto the edge. We think swimming lessons are in your near future (we were to late for this summer, but we'll try the YMCA for a fall or winter class). You were struggling at times to get out of our arms to swim by yourself, so we definitely think you are ready to start learning some skills! And clearly you love the water! You are a little fish, just like Mommy and Daddy!

One of the most significant changes we've seen in the past 2 months is in the way you communicate. You are speaking in several word sentences now when you want to get a point across. You are also stringing a few short sentences together now. You can carry on conversations with us now! You like to explain things to us, or point out your observations. This is so exciting to see! One quick example of this from last week: You spotted a picture of a monkey craft, and grabbed my face to turn it towards you (something you do often) and said "Mom, it's a mouse!" I said "No, it's a monkey!" and then you said really emphatically "NO, it's a mouse!!" and then started laughing! It was so funny that you were arguing with me over the picture! Sure, sometimes we can't understand some of your sentences, but you've got a firm grasp on patterns of speech, and your vocabulary is huge! We're so proud that you are making this new leap in your language skills!


I'm really looking forward to seeing how you will be as a big sister. You've been so helpful lately. You like to get me things if I ask for something, and always help throw away trash. Lately you've also started wanting to help with other things, like sweeping the floor, or cooking. You like to put on the oven mits and say to me "I help cooking! I'm cooking!" You also like to "help" us get our socks and shoes on, always saying"I'm helping!" I'm excited to see how you will help out with the babies! I imagine you will want to help with feeding them and changing their diapers, since you are already practicing this with your baby dolls!

Helping in the garden:


I know you are going to love the babies so much, because you already do! You give my belly hugs and kisses all the time, and talk about the babies constantly! You love watching the video from the ultra sound, and listening to their heart beats. You often bring me the doppler and ask to "listen to babies". You like to help with that too by being in control of the doppler. You always get excited when we find a heart beat, or hear one move. I can't wait till you can feel them moving! You are going to be a great big sister!

We are so proud of how far you have come in the last 2 months! It never ceases to amaze me how much you learn each and every day! (And you are learn right now...even as I write this!! You just did your first forward roll ALL BY YOURSELF!!! Daddy saw it, but I was in here writing this blog. I'm so sad I missed that!) You are our little sponge! I can't believe you will be 2 next month! While I am sad about you getting older, I'm also very excited to see what the next year will hold for you, as you learn more and more, and fully become a toddler! We love you so much Lily, and are so blessed every day to have you in our lives!

Love,
Mommy

Onto the pictures!

22 months, playing with bubbles:




Not wanting to get her picture taken:


Our 23 month photo shoot didn't go that great. Lily had no interest in getting her own picture taken, but kept setting her baby in the chair I had set up. She would set the baby up nicely, get her a toy and a necklace, then come sit down next to me start cheering on the baby. "YAY baby!!" -clap, clap, clap! It was not easy getting a picture of Lily! Here's the very few that came out decent:




And the best of the bunch...our little 23 month old!

Babies!

Baby B Face Profile:


We had our big ultra sound today! This is the one where they take there time looking at each baby carefully, taking measurements of all the different body parts. It's really neat! We got to see the brain, the 4 chambers of each beating heart, stomach, kidney, and all the bones of each baby! Both babies looked great.

Baby A profile:

Baby B Profile:


Baby A had a heart beat of 156 bpm, and was measuring perfectly to date at 10 oz. Baby b is a little behind, measuring for a due date of Dec 27th, and is 8 oz, and a heart beat of 153 bpm. There is a 17% difference in size between both babies. At first we had a scare when baby B was measuring 23% smaller, and they really like to see no more than a 20% difference. They had to do most of baby B measurements again, and after that they adjusted it to a 17% discordance. They said this was fine, and it can be hard to get proper measurements for twins because they push into each other. Hearing this of course doesn't make me worry any less about baby B being smaller for date! I'll be getting an ultra sound once a month from here on out to check on their growth.

Baby B face profile:


Other than their difference in size, everything looks great. The femur bones on both were in the normal range. This is important because femur size can be an indicator for downs syndrome. So it's good to hear that they were both normally sized. The hearts both looked great, and there was good fluid levels for at least baby A (I don't remember them checking baby B's fluid...but Sean says he saw them check it.)

Baby A Right Foot:


Baby B Right Foot:



We were in there for a pretty long time, and we saw so much, so it's hard to remember everything I wanted to record! Let's see, at the beginning of the ultra sound Baby A was breech, with the head on the right, and feet going across to the left. Baby B was transverse up near my belly button, with the head on the right, and feet on the left. This explains why I've been feeling everything on the left, where both sets of feet are kicking me! I feel nothing on the right. The positions really mean nothing right now though, as they have plenty of time to flip around. In fact baby A proved that point to us while we were taking the arm measurements, when he/she flipped to a head down position! This was good for the ultra sound tech though, because it gave her a better view of the spine!

Baby A Profile and Spine:



I think the only other piece of important information I got was that baby A's Placenta is low lying. I'm not sure if it is covering the placenta, but she said it was something to keep an eye on. It's nothing serious, just means that if the placenta is covering any part of the cervix I would automatically have to have a c-section. I also know that it's early yet still, and they placenta still has time to move up a bit. I'm crossing my fingers that it does move up. I don't need any other thing increasing my chances for a c-section! Chances are high enough as it is with twins!

Baby A Face (these ones are kinda creepy! ):


Baby B Face:



Sorry if this post was pretty boring. Mostly I wanted to record everything that we learned for myself! As for the one thing that is often found out at this very detailed ultra sound, the genders...we have decided to keep it a big surprise for their birth day! You're only given this big of a surprise so many times in your life, and this time we thought it'd be fun to leave it for the very end! I'm always open to hearing what everyone else thinks were having though...so if you have any sort of feeling for what they are, leave a comment! :) I'm just happy knowing they are healthy for now though!

One last profile picture of baby A:

(It looks to me like there is a hand up above the head on this one!)

In comparing both babies profiles, I think they definitely look different. My guess would be after see this that they are not identical. I think Baby B may have Sean's nose, and Baby A has a nose more similar to mine and Lily's. Notice how baby B's nose and mouth stick out a bit more than baby A's? Not that any of this means anything, it's just fun to speculate who they will look like! I think baby A looks more like Lily did at this stage than Baby B does. Here's a look back at Lily's ultra sound picture from the same week of pregnancy. I think baby A looks very similar to that! Could that be a clue that baby A is a girl?! Haha...oh how fun it is to speculate!

Showing Concern

Here's a quick little anecdote from yesterday, told by Sean:

Lily and I were coming out of a store on Monday when she heard a baby crying somewhere in the store. She turned to me and said "baby crying!" and then "baby sad." Lily seemed to be genuinely concerned for this unseen baby, craning her head around to see if she could identify the baby. She then offered a suggestion by saying "baby needs binkie!"


It's so neat to see Lily making these connections now, and thinking of her own solutions for problems! It's also so sweet to see her showing genuine concern for others! It's also so neat to watch her communicating things like this to us!

Sorry, no pictures today! I just wanted to make sure that we recorded that little thought process from last night! I should hopefully be back later this week with Lily's 21-22 month blog, and also a twin update! I have my big ultra sound on Friday...so hopefully I'll have more pictures of them to share!

Adventures With Paint

Yesterday I bought Lily a bunch of new paint and paint brushes, and let her explore a new art medium. She had so much fun painting! Sharing the pictures is really the only way I can document her art time (and the mess that follows) properly...sorry about how picture heavy this post is!

We started her art time with only the green and blue paint. She was very careful about her work at first. She would switch back and forth between the two paints neatly, and had fun with mixing the paint on the paper. This is the first time Lily has painted with a brush. I think she really enjoyed it!

Explaining her painting to me (and still relatively clean!):


Shortly after we started, I got out the yellow and the red paint too. She was so funny about arranging the paint neatly in a row beside her. Even when things got messy, she still liked to have everything lined up. She would rearrange the order each time she wanted to use a different color, so the one she wanted was closest to her!

Trying out a new way to get to the paint:


Her painting so far:


Trying her fingers as the brush:


She's starting to get a bit messy now, as she discovers the paint on her hands:



"Oh No!"
Lily quickly learned that as fun as painting on the paper was, painting on herself was WAY more entertaining! She started with her hands...




...then moved to her feet.




Squishy paint between the toes:


Then she gave it a taste (don't worry...it was nontoxic paint...and she only made this mistake once!) :


She painted all over her body. "Her legs, arms, feet, hands, belly....you name it, she tried to paint it! She even painted her diaper!

Every so often she'd go back to the paper painting to add a bit more.

She also kept asking me to refill her paint containers. I guess she was worried about running out of paint! She had such a fun time though, and I had a fun time watching her!

Here are some more pictures of her covered in paint:





Sorry there are so many...I had a hard time choosing which ones to share today!

After a while she decided that she was done with painting, and it was clean up time. We had already filled up her tub with water, so she was all set to go!




Explaining to me how she washes her hands:


I'm so glad I picked up new paint for her yesterday! I think this will be an activity we do often!

4th Of July!

As you could imagine, from my last post, we had a pretty uneventful 4th of July weekend. Lily was still sick with a fever for the majority of the weekend, but luckily she had pockets of time where her fever was down, so we could get out! We actually had a pretty large window of time on the 4th where she was feeling more like herself. We spent part of that time outside in our yard playing croquet. Lily had so much fun with this new game! She tried hitting the balls a few time, but wasn't quite sure what to do with her stick!

I think she just liked running around with her stick better than trying to coordinate hitting a ball!

And she was way more interested in the balls themselves! She was trying to juggle them like Daddy was doing!


By far she had the most fun putting everything away when she was done playing. She started singing the clean up song from Little Gym spontaneously and stated putting away the balls! "It's time to put the balls away!"

Busy cleaning up:


After she was finished cleaning up, she decided she wanted to give her pony a bath! We got out her little tub, filled it with some water, and let her get soaked! We thought she wanted to clean her pony, which she did at first...


...but soon she discovered it was a lot more fun to clean herself!





She started cleaning everything after that. She wanted to clean my foot, my shoe, and the drive way! Haha!

After getting her and her clothes dry, we headed down to Litchfield to check out their 4th of July festivities. They had a pet parade, which was a lot of fun! We saw a lot of different kinds of dogs, a couple bunnies, a cat, a pony, a few chicken, and even a flock of pigeons! Unfortunately Lily was starting to crash at this point, so she didn't enjoy it as much as I'm sure she would have. We went home shortly after the parade, and Lily took the longest nap, that we had to wake her up from! Then she was only awake for another hour before going to bed for the night! Guess it was a good thing we took the weekend easy, though I'm sad we missed out on seeing family and fireworks!

She seems to be better today by the way. She's was a little fussy after her nap, but was ok after a while. Crossing our fingers that this was the last illness we will see for a while!

15 Weeks

Continuing the march towards normal proportions, baby's legs now out measure the arms. And, finally, all four limbs have functional joints. Your fetus is squirming and wiggling like crazy down in the womb, though you probably still can't feel the movements.

Today I am 15 weeks 6 days! I'm almost at the half way point for a twin pregnancy! I'm starting to feel great again. I still get tired if I over do thing, and at the end of the day, but it is a lot less pronounced as it was earlier on! I'm enjoying having some energy back, while it lasts! I know soon enough I'll be tired all the time again!

I've written before that I think I have been feeling movements. Now I am sure I feel movements...and very frequently! I feel them every day now! With Lily I felt my first movements at 14 weeks, and it wasn't consistent for a while after that, so I'm surprised to be feeling them so often already! I'm not surprised at feeling them earlier, (they say you feel movements earlier with subsequent pregnancies) I'm just surprised at how often I feel them already! I'm still waiting for those nice strong kicks, but for now I'm happy to feel them wiggling around!

I finally had my second doctors visit last week. Everything is great with me and the babies. No weight gain to date (actually I've lost 5 lbs!), and blood pressure is great. I hope it stays good throughout the pregnancy. I got a lot of questions answered on how delivery may go, so I'm feeling a little more calm about the whole thing. Unfortunately my doctor wont deliver naturally if one of the babies is breech...so please keep us in your thoughts as we get further along that both babies are head down! My next appointment is later this month for our big anatomy scan! I'm really looking forward to that ultra sound!

Sick Again

Poor baby is sick again. Last night she had a low fever, and today it has shot up pretty high. I'm wondering if she caught something over the weekend meeting and seeing so many people at the rehearsal dinner? ( I hope if that's the case that it wasn't spread to the other little girls she was playing with at the party!) Right now we're just taking it easy cuddling on the couch, alternating between Tylenol and Motrin, and pushing as much fluids as possible! I hope this illness doesn't last to long like her last few did. Be thinking healthy thought for us! We don't want to miss the fireworks this weekend!! Poor baby has had such a rough year with being sick!