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!!