Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is T's birthday! We are headed out to the farm tonight to spend some time with the whole family. All the cousins will get to meet for the first time...you can bet I'll be taking pictures. :)

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Speaking of pictures...here are some cute ones I got of my sweet girls and their daddy.

And here is the silliness starting to come out.

I wonder where she gets that from?? :)

T is such a wonderful father. He always tries his hardest to make time for his girls. Every night before bed T and K have been roughhousing. She absolutely loves it. He tosses her in the air, tickles her until she is laughing too hard to breathe, and even lays on the ground and lets her jump off his stomach - which she thinks is hilarious! They have so much fun and it is great to listen to her happy shrieks and giggles.

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K is always asking me why he has to go to work and I always tell her that Daddy works so hard so that Mommy can stay home with her. Yesterday she made up a new song: "I miss my Daddy! Because I love him really much, because I want him really much. I miss my Daddy!" :) We are so blessed to have a daddy/husband who is so amazing!

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Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you!

Bath Time

S finally lost her umbilical cord stump yesterday! That thing did not want to let go! She is four weeks old today...hard to believe! We had told K that S could take a bath with her when she got rid of it, and of course you should never tell a 2 year old something that you don't want remembered for the rest of your life. So our first order of business was a joint bath. :) We got this fun bath bouncer for Christmas so T put it together last night and we tested it out.

S loved it! She just relaxed there happy as a clam. :)

This picture is actually from the other day. I couldn't believe how long K's hair was after T got it wet.

And here is a little video of them together...with a washcloth for censorship. :)

They had a great time...unfortunately the bath ended quite abruptly when S decided to make use of the fact that she was diaperless. :) In the words of K, "Oh no, she pooped, AGAIN! She ALWAYS poops!" A hasty retreat was made by both parties. :) Hopefully we will have time to wash them up next time. :)

Like Mother, Like Daughters?

Okay, I finally got my pictures together! Here are some shots of me, K, and S. You can decide for yourself if we look alike. In some pictures I think we look identical and in others not so much. Here are a few "stats" first.

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Me: 7 lbs. even (two weeks early)

K: 8 lbs. 1 oz. (three days late)

S: 8 lbs. 3 oz. (three days early)

Me: 19 1/2 inches

K: 20 3/4 inches

S: officially 18 1/2 inches, we think it was closer to 20

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Here is my baby picture from the hospital.

K - a week or so old
S - a few weeks old

Me

K

S

Me

K

S (I think they look a lot alike in these two)

Me

K

S

Me

K

And S

So there you have it. Do you think we look alike? The shots weren't real good for comparisons sake but it was the best I could do at the moment. :)

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And for comparisons sake here are a few other facts about K and S.

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Being pregnant with K was relatively easy. Morning sickness was fairly mild and lasted till exactly 12 weeks. I gained 33 pounds with K. K's birth was surprisingly easy. My water broke and K was born exactly seven hours later.

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Being pregnant with S was fairly difficult, morning sickness was much worse and lasted till 16 weeks. I was terribly uncomfortable throughout the second and third trimesters. I gained 18 pounds with S, and I was really only in true labor for an hour.

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K was a good baby, but definitely had fussy periods and cried a lot. S is very mellow and rarely cries unless she is hungry or has a dirty diaper.

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Well, that's all for now. It will be interesting to see the similarities and differences as they both grow and change.

Acts 4:12

Noni got some awesome cds that put scripture verses to songs for easy memorizing so every time K goes somewhere with her she comes home with a new song. We love hearing her sing scripture verses. She is so funny when she does it. She didn't really want to stand still for me and sing, but here is Acts 4:12 - Salvation is found in nobody else, for there is no other name, under heaven, given to men by which we must be saved.

Wordless Wednesday

"Happy Valen-times"

Okay, well, I have pictures. They are completely unedited and in desperate need of some cropping but here they are. These are some of the latest from our Valentines weekend. K calls it Valentimes with an "m". :) Here she is making Valentines with her sister. She is such a ham lately and I have a hard time getting her to smile directly at the camera. Hopefully it's just a phase.

K loves to use scissors so I try to give her supervised cutting time in the hopes that she won't be tempted to try to use them on her own. :)

K and Daddy made "Valentimes tookies!" on Friday night.

Waiting patiently for them to be done. :)

Since T had Monday off we headed out to the farm on Saturday to spend the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's. Auntie Nae and Uncle Wade came down for the day. Here they are meeting S for the first time. Danae was actually induced this morning, so we should have a new nephew by nightfall!

K helping Grandma make our Valentines dinner. T and his Dad took K to a model train show...such a romantic Valentines day. Hahaha. I've never been a big Valentines fan so I didn't mind. We usually stay home and avoid all the crowds anyway. :)

And here are our two little loves. As you can see, S still has her umbilical cord stump. It doesn't seem to show any signs of falling off any time soon even though she will be three weeks tomorrow. I'm ready for it to go. Hopefully it will fall off soon. Oh, and some exciting (for me) news...S only woke to eat once last night! She went five solid hours between feedings...her longest stretch yet! Yay for sleep! :)

Well, I feel like I am really scattered in my blog-thinking since I haven't been able to post. Hopefully I will organize my thinking soon and be able to post some more coherent posts. :)

Back In Business

Our computer is here! It's so nice! T did a good job picking it out. :)

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The girls are doing so well! I think the second is WAY less of an adjustment than the first. With the first my entire life changed. It is a much bigger change to go from no kids to a kid, than it is from one to two...at least it has been for me. With K we went from doing what we wanted, when we wanted, to being parents 24-7, having limited mobility and I started staying home instead of working. Even though I was a nanny, at the end of the day I got to leave those kids with their parents and go home. It was really different learning to be a mom around the clock!

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S has been much less of an adjustment, although, I have to admit, the first week was rough...really rough! There were a few moments when I wondered what the heck we were thinking when we decided to have two. I was exhausted and sore from the birth, but as soon as we hit that 7 to 10 day period and I got S onto a 3 hour schedule things started looking up and they have only got better from there.
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S has fit into K and my schedule quite nicely. The Babywise program is working beautifully...S has officially been sleeping well for a full week now. She wakes up two times in the night to eat and goes right back to sleep and usually wakes up around 8 or 8:30. Then I manipulate her schedule a bit so that she and K (and I:) nap at the same time everyday. It has been working out great!

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Well, I will get all my pictures organized on the new computer. We don't have a photo editing program on here so I'll have to figure that out, but I'll try to get some photos up by tonight.

Returning Soon

I'm having bloggy withdrawals! I tried to post on T's IPhone but it wouldn't let me even type. (We are at Grandma and Grandpa's for the long weekend).

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We are getting our new computer soon...the tracking number says it's in town so it should be delivered to us on Monday or Tuesday. I can't wait!

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I have lots of pictures and a video or two to share as soon as we are up and running.

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But for now all I have is something funny that K said today: T was tossing her in the air after dinner and Grandma said, "Ugh, Daddy, she just ate!" K piped right up and said, "Grandma I'm not eight, I'm two!" :)

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Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

A Few Random Pictures

I like this pic. T looks tired, but very much

like the proud daddy he is. :)

Noni and Papa with a five day old little girl. It looks like she is playing peek-a-boo. :)

I had to post this picture b/c it shows her dimple so well! I have actually seen a dimple on both sides a couple of times, but the right one is there more often. K and I have only one dimple, but S is a double dimpler I guess. :)

We are having computer issues so the only time I can post is when T brings his laptop home from work. We are supposed to get a new laptop soon so I'll be able to post more regularly then. I have some great pics of K and I to compare to S's pics so as soon as I can I will post those, but it probably won't be for a few days at least.

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I don't know how long it takes to get a computer, but we haven't even ordered it yet. Our laptop bit the dust last April and we have been making do with my parents old desktop, but last week it got a bunch of Trojans. I'm not exactly sure what happens when you get those but it makes the Internet as slow as mud and more stuff gets downloaded every time we turn it on. So we are going to give in and finally buy a new laptop. It will be nice to have a laptop again.

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Until then...

Our Girls

This video makes me laugh. S is smiling...probably just gas but it's still cute. I was trying to get K to tell us about her sister, but it didn't work too well. She keeps insisting that S is not a girl, she's just a baby. We keep trying to explain that she is a girl baby, but K is not having it. Oh well, she'll get it eventually I guess. :)

S's schedule is slowly getting worked out. Two nights she has only woke twice to eat and then went right back to sleep, but then last night she was awake for two hours straight, crying on and off until I finally just gave up and fed her again and then she slept until ten. :P It's hard to believe she is already a week and half old. It really does go by quickly.

First Bath

We gave S her first bath the other night. It went a lot better than K's first bath. That bath was just a non-stop scream while we washed her up as quickly as possible. :) S doesn't look too happy about it, but she didn't put up too much of a fuss.

Maybe having her big sister there was all the comfort she needed. :)

K is very eager to help do everything with the baby. That will be a very nice thing as S gets older. I'm looking forward to having a good little helper. The help is a little scary at the moment with S being so little but K does a very good job being gentle...most of the time. :)

K is very much looking forward to the day when S can join her in the big girl bathtub and they can play together. With as quickly as babies grow I'm sure it will be in no time!

Healthy Girl

S had her first checkup yesterday. She weighed 8 lbs., and had a huge poopy diaper right before hand so they were really happy that she is pretty much back up to her birth weight. We think they must have measured her wrong at the hospital b/c T measured her here at home and got 20 1/4 inches and the doctor said 20 inches. So she really wasn't 18 1/2.

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The doctor was really pleased with how well she looked and said she is a very healthy. They were also impressed with how mellow she is. We have noticed that here at home too. The doctor said that often second babies are more mellow b/c their parents are more relaxed and the baby picks up on that. I think that is definitely true with us. We are WAY more relaxed than we were with K. We treated K like a piece of very fragile glass and I never let her sleep more than half an hour without checking to make sure she was still breathing. We think S is precious and perfect, but we aren't as worried about every little thing. :)

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Case in point: I think we took everything but the kitchen sink with us the first time we took K out, even though we were only going five minutes away. When we got to the doctor's office yesterday I realized we didn't even have a blanket for S! Daddy had to wrap her up in his coat to keep her warm while we waited for the doctor. Haha:)

S's expression in this picture cracks me up! She is already following in her sister's footsteps in making us laugh. :)

I'm really looking forward to a more mellow personality in S. I love K to pieces but she can be very intense. Everything is heightened, especially this past week. It's like her emotions have been multiplied from an already high level. Totally understandable, considering her entire world has changed, and she IS starting to settle down a little bit. Thankfully she doesn't seem to attribute any of the upset to S. She has had nothing but protective loving feelings for S. And hopefully she'll get back to her "normal" within the next few weeks.
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In sleeping news: the Babywise training is already starting to pay off! Two nights ago S woke up four times but each time she ate and went right back to sleep. Then last night she only woke up two times, ate, and went right back to sleep! Yipee! I definitely feel more human after a good night's sleep, and I got a nap today when I managed to get both girls to sleep at the same time, all by myself! I CAN do this mothering of two thing! :)

Wakin' Up Is Hard To Do

S has her days and nights totally mixed up. All she wants to do is sleep in the day and in the middle of the night it is all we can do to get her to sleep. I have been having to wake her up to eat in the day or she will sleep for hours. It's really hard to wake her up!

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I guess these things sort themselves out naturally but it can't come soon enough for us. She looks so cute when she is waking up that I had to grab a quick video. :)