Pictures

A few recent pictures for you...

This is Amelia in a dress that I used to wear when I was a little baby.

Lily loved giving Mia her bottle!
Lily now enjoys wearing her hair in a ponytail. Two sweet girls!

Loving her new pigtails!

Beginning of February

I can't believe it is already February...where does the time go?!

Just a little update on the girls...Amelia is awesome. She is now 11 weeks old which I cannot believe. She has been cooing and smiling for a couple of weeks now, and I fall more in love with her every time she does. She is precious. She is also a champ at sleeping which I greatly appreciate. For a few weeks now, we have been putting her down about 10 each night, and she sleeps until about 8 plus she takes really good naps during the day (especially if she is in her swing). We're about to start working on pulling that bedtime back a little bit each night, so we'll see how that goes.

Lily is doing great too. She makes me laugh (almost) all the time. The girl loves to sing; here's hoping she inherited her daddy's abilities in that area. Apparently they were singing "I'm A Little Teapot" in Sunday school this past week because she now loves to say "Here's spout...TIP me over and pour out!" It's adorable especially when she leans to the side as she tips. She also loves to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" (and "play" it on her alligator piano/xylophone) and "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" (with motions). She loves to do Daisy's dance from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ("jump forward, jump backwards, march, march, march, clap, clap, clap, slide to this side, slide to the other side"). She can do it really well. I caught it on my cell phone the other day, but I have no idea how to get the video onto the blog from there. She's always on the go these days. She will finish doing an activity and then look at me, raise her arms up and say "Now what do?" She amazes me everyday with something she says. For instance, on Sunday, I picked her and Mia up from the nursery and then we went to meet Ryan. She saw him and said "What's up Daddy?" Hilarious! The teachers at her school tell me every time I pick her up how amazed they are at her attention span and listening skills. That must be a school thing because I'm not sure I could say the same thing about those skills being demonstrated at home; she definitely has "terrible two" moments now and then! She is into a "Me do it!" stage, so we are learning to pick our battles.

Truly, we have been blessed with these two wonderful, healthy and beautiful girls. We can't imagine life without them!

The Thinker

For about a month now, if you ask Lily something and she does not know the answer, she will cross her arms across her chest, then tap her forehead and say "Hmmm, think, think, think." Those of you who happen to watch "My Friends Tigger and Pooh" realize this comes from their song "Now's the time to think, think, think..." It cracks me up though, and each time she does it, it makes me think of the famous statue "The Thinker" by Rodin.

Big Sister Love

Lily really seems to love being a big sister (most of the time anyway). She is always checking on Amelia and asking "where's Mia?" when she doesn't see her close-by. This weekend, while the grandparents were keeping the girls, Amelia started crying. Lily immediately started saying "Lily here Mia!" because she hears me saying "Mommy and Lily are right here Mia" if we're nearby when she starts getting fussy. Also, Ryan went to get Amelia from her crib to eat on Saturday, and when he returned to the living room, Lily was sitting in a chair with the Boppy pillow around her waist holding Mia's bottle and saying "Me do it." Ryan put Amelia on the pillow, and Lily proceeded to give her the entire bottle while she watched Mickey Mouse! Ryan got some really cute pictures while Bama took an adorable video. Hopefully I will get some of those up soon. Lily has also learned that she is the big sister while Mia is the little sister. For awhile she would walk up to Mia and say "Hi big little sister!" but now she properly says "Hi little sister!" She also likes to come up to her and say "Awww" and gently touch her hair. She is such a sweet little girl, and I am so proud of how she loves on Amelia.

2 Month Check-up

Ryan and I took Amelia to see Dr. White this morning for her two month check-up. We can't believe that it has already been two months; time if flying by! As expected, she got a great report. Dr. White said she is hitting all the milestones (smiling, cooing, holding head well) and that she has beautiful skin. She also said Amelia seemed happier and perkier than she would expect a 2-month-old which is great. She is certainly a growing girl too. She now weighs 11 pounds, 6.5 ounces which moved her up to the 75th percentile; I had told Ryan I thought she hit a growth spurt last week. It also made me realize though that she is about to outgrow all her newborn clothes; they go up to 12 pounds! She is about to be in the 3-6 month clothes which I just can't believe! Amelia also jumped up to the 75th percentile in height at 23 inches. She actually went down to the 25th percentile for head size which is 15 inches, but that isn't anything to worry about.

Amelia also received her first round of vaccines today. She gets the rotavirus one by mouth which isn't bad, but she had to get three shots in her leg. One of those shots contains the vaccine for three diseases, so she ended up with a total of six vaccines this morning, including the oral one. She was a happy little girl until those shots went in; it was so sad to watch her little face as you could see the pain and bewilderment set in. She cried with big tears for a few minutes, but Daddy helped soothe her. Though she normally hates her car seat, she was asleep within just a minute of being put in it; it is almost like a small trauma sleep.

We also asked Dr. White about Lily's behavior. We never know if the way she is acting is because of jealousy over Amelia or if it is just normal 2-year-old behavior. Of course, it is probably a combination of the two. Her main suggestion that we are going to try our best to do is to emphasize to Lily having time alone each day with both of us. We try to do this anyway, but she suggested making it a big deal in Lily's eyes that this is one-on-one time, and the other parent will handle anything Amelia needs while we have that time. We can see a huge difference in Lily's behavior on days when she has spent some of her day playing with us instead of just playing while we cook dinner or letting her watch Mickey Mouse. Becoming a big sister and being a two-year-old is a tough transition for her sometimes!

Name Change

Ryan and I had not planned on giving Amelia a nickname; we really like that name and assumed that is what we would call her. We knew we were going to go with the nickname Lily instead of her given name of Lillian, but we thought we would stick with Amelia. However, we have grown really fond of "Mia" which is the nickname Lily has given to Amelia. We still really like Amelia and will often call her that, but if you hear us talking about Mia, you'll know now who we mean!

Pictures to Share

I wanted to share a few pictures from the last couple of weeks...

Amelia is ready for her first day at church.

We were so glad to have Grandpops visit from Chicago. He treated us to a wonderful dinner at The Capital Grille; thank you!
Grandpops and Amelia.
Amelia is really starting to smile and coo a lot which is absolutely adorable. She loves her baths, and we have fun "talking" to one another.Look at those sweet feet!

Is that smile precious or what?

Checking herself out in the mirror.

Lily is such a big girl these days!

Amelia and Macey Henderson are only 5 days apart. I'm sure they will be great friends!

Lily and Parker Henderson had a great time playing together. Thanks to Brian and Jill for bringing the kids over, cooking dinner and hanging out with us; we had a great time and look forward to doing this again soon!

I don't know how in the world she can be comfortable, but she slept for just over 2 hours like this in her swing.

Papa and Meme came by to visit for a little bit. They always enjoy getting to hold Amelia.

Lily loves riding her rocking horse that Granna and Popa gave her at Christmas. Ryan tried to name the horse Roxanne while I tried to name it Cinnamon. Finally, we asked Lily what the horse's name was and she said "Umm, Dusty." Dusty it is!
Bama loves getting to hold Amelia. She has some kind of magic in her that calms Amelia down every time!

How adorable are they in their matching outfits from Bama?! Lily loves her paint with water Mickey Mouse book that Santa brought her.

Potty Training?

So I can't decide what to do about potty-training Lily. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to have her out of diapers. However, I am absolutely dreading the actual "training" part. I hate cleaning up messes and this kind of "accident" will drive me crazy. Also, now that tax season is picking up, I am out of the house a lot more which means I would be pawning off the training to my mom and Kim the nanny (maybe this isn't so bad after all...).

Lily seems to have other thoughts though. Ever since moving up a class at school, she seems very interested in the potty. She usually tells us when she is about to have a poopy diaper by saying her tummy hurts, but she doesn't say anything if she is about to wet it. Also, she is now constantly trying to take her diaper off. In fact, the four of us were all taking naps this afternoon (what a nice treat!). We always hear Lily when she gets up because she loudly shuts the hallway door behind her; today she did not shut the door so we didn't wake up immediately. She actually walked through our bedroom into our bathroom, took off her diaper and put it in the toilet; we woke up to the sound of our toilet flushing and Lily was standing next to Ryan with her pants around her ankles. Thankfully the diaper didn't flush or clog up the toilet. Several other times today she will suddenly stop what she is doing, pull her pants down and attempt to take her diaper off.

I had planned on attempting potty training after tax season when I will be home more and the weather will be warmer which means she can run around without pants on a little more comfortably, but now I'm not so sure. I don't have the first clue how to go about training though. I would love to hear thoughts on this from other parents. Any suggestions on how to successfully train a little girl to use the potty?

Thank you girls!

We finally got a good night's sleep last night! You know that Lily has been having some sleep issues ever since we brought Amelia home from the hospital. Last night though, we put her down at 8 and she slept until a few minutes past 7 this morning; yea! Also, we put Amelia down about 10:30, and she slept without making a peep until 7:30 this morning. Ryan and I definitely needed this rest; it's amazing how much better we felt all day. Here's hoping this will continue!

7 Years!

Yesterday, January 12, was our 7 year wedding anniversary. It brought back lots of wonderful memories from our wedding day which is still the best day of my life. Are you curious to know where we spent our anniversary? After work, we met at Chuck E Cheese. That's right, the kids' pizza and play place. However, we did that because Lily has been staying in bed until she hears her music CD in the morning, and we promised her a big surprise after she had done that so many times; she gets stickers each morning to remind her how close she is to her surprise. She was thrilled because she got two new puzzles that morning and dinner at Chuck E Cheese! We had a fun time, it's just not how we ever really expected to spend our anniversary. After Lily went to bed and Amelia was asleep in the swing, Ryan cooked us a couple of filets (they were stuffed with garlic and herb boursin cheese and wrapped in pancetta - absolutely delicious!) which was a great way to celebrate.

We have definitely been blessed to have such a wonderful marriage. We have made so many great memories over these years, and we look forward to the years to come together!

Thanks guys

The last couple of mornings, Lily has stayed in her bed until she hears her music alarm go off at 6:45; yea! Then she comes into our room, turns on the tv and comes over to me so I can pick her up and put her in bed with us. Once she's in between us, I'll ask if she wants under the covers which she almost always does. She gets in and says "Thanks guys!" It's so funny to hear!

Counting and You

Lily counts EVERYTHING these days. For instance, she looked at the computer as I finished writing the last blog entry a moment ago...she counted the words. She walked up to our tv, saw the word "sony" and counted the letters. She takes her goldfish out of her snack bowl to count them. She counts the animals she has lined up on her Noah's Ark. She counts the picture frames lined up on our buffet. You get the picture. Usually, she counts to ten correctly and then will start counting from one again; however, if she's being silly she will skip numbers and look at me to see if I'll correct her. Also, she occasionally will say "...eight, nine, one ten" because she is learning that the number ten starts with a one.

She has also started referring to herself as "you" a lot of the time. It started when she would see baby pictures of herself which is probably because I would say "that was you as a little baby." Now, when she sees any picture of herself that's what she calls herself. For example, she will see our family picture and when you ask who is in, she'll say "Mommy, Daddy, You, Mia!"

So Considerate

Meme came by to visit and see the girls a little while ago. She always enjoys holding sweet little Amelia and talking to Lily. When she was ready to go, Lily walked over to the door and tried to open it for her; of course, our handles have protectors over them so she can't open them, but it was a nice thought. Anyway, Meme walked onto the doorstep and was about to step down when Lily called out "Watch step Meme!" I guess she is used to hearing us tell people to watch their step as they are leaving!

Movin' On Up

Lily started back to Parent Morning Out today. She was very excited! The director and teachers decided (with our permission) to move Lily up to the 2-year-old class. Because of Lily's birthday (they follow the Cobb County birthday cut-off for schools), she was in the toddler class last "semester." However, because of how great she was doing, they decided to promote her to where she would fit in a little better with the other kids. When I picked her up, the director and one of her teachers (who is a girl I went to elementary school with; small world!), both came out to tell me how great she did. She loved the new, bigger room. She told me about sitting on the potty and reading a book about Noah's Ark and his animals. They send home notes each day on what the kids did, and I have to say that I was very proud to see a check-mark and big smiley face next to "displayed manners" at lunch. She's such a sweet little girl! It also showed that she followed directions well, sat on the potty, ate most of her lunch, listened well during story time and that she mostly played by herself which doesn't surprise me in the least. As I picked her up, the teacher also commented that Lily seemed pretty tired (I pick her up at 1 which is typically the start of nap time); this isn't a surprise either considering she is waking up so much earlier. Oh, I want her to go back to her normal sleep patterns!

She Knows We Don't Like It...

So you know we are having issues with Lily waking up early, right? It's before the sun comes up which is just ridiculous to me! Well, she received a cute lift-the-flap book from Bama this past weekend, and one of the pages says "what happens when the sun comes up?" There is a cute little picture of a child in bed in a darkened room and when you lift the window flap, there is a picture of the sun and it's bright outside. The answer is "It gets light outside." We were looking at this book today, and when we got to this part, I said "Mommy doesn't like getting up before the sun comes up even though Lily does." She looked up at me and said "Daddy no like either." I couldn't help but smile as I replied, "You're right, Daddy doesn't like it either.

Birthday Party fun

Ryan and Lily went to her friend, Hadley's, 3-year-old princess birthday party on Saturday afternoon. Ryan said she had a great time! She enjoyed the pizza and playing with the toys they had. Of course, she really loved the cupcake too; that's my girl! Since coming home that evening, she has been singing "happy birthday" again and again; she corrects us too if we insert anyone's name other than Hadley (though she says it more like "Had-ee"). She was so excited about getting a goodie bag at the end of the party. She came running in to our house afterwards to show me. She has been having so much fun with the princess bubbles; the blowing end of the wand is shaped like a diamond which she thinks is pretty cool. However, her favorite goodie in there is a cherry-flavored dum-dum lollipop. She has never had a lollipop before, but I decided today to let her try. For about 10 minutes, she just carried it around saying how pretty it is. Finally, I showed her how to lick it, and she didn't stop licking it for probably 30 minutes (which is a really long time for a dum-dum!). The funny thing is she would take a little lick, then stretch it out to my mouth and say "Mommy's turn." I would take a little lick (I mean really, who can resist?), and she would say "Yummy treat!"

Another note about the party...Lily has always been pretty hesitant around dogs, so we weren't sure how she would handle their little dog, Indiana, who she has freaked out around before. I tried to remind her that Indiana would be there and he might bark a little, but he is a nice dog. Ryan said she started to get upset when Indiana licked Lily's hand, but once he explained she was giving her kisses, she liked it. Now, when I ask if she got dog kisses, she just laughs. Maybe she is starting to overcome this fear now.

Bath Time!

Okay, so maybe "bath time" isn't the right word; "shower time" would be more appropriate. I think Lily's favorite time of day is when she gets to take a shower. For a couple of months now she has preferred to take a shower with one of us instead of taking a bath. Each night we ask if she's ready to take a shower, she gets so excited and starts saying "Eat song!" Now you may not know what "Eat song" is, but we are very familiar with it as it gets requested every night before her shower, anytime we get in the car or we listen to the county Music Choice station on tv. It's actually the song "Chicken Fried" by The Zac Brown Band. I think it's hilarious that because this song mentions fried chicken, Lily assumes it is about eating! It's on Ryan's iPod, so that's the first song that gets played when she gets in the shower. She also has some toys in the shower that she loves. First is her "Water Water Everywhere" book; I tell you, the girl loves her books and wants them even in the water! For Christmas we gave her some farm animal bath stickers that she has fun playing with and stacking on the wall. Our Uncle Randy gave her some bath crayons for Christmas too and she has a great time coloring on the drawing pad. She usually tells me she is drawing the farm animals or writing "Mommy." I'm really glad she tells me what she is drawing because otherwise, I have might have trouble figuring it out! While she is doing all of this, it's easy for me to brush her teeth, wash her hair and scrub her down; of course, then she has fun playing with all the bubbles from the body wash. Really, she loves this time of the day, and since it is just before bedtime, we love it too!

The End of 2008

Can you believe today is December 31? I can't. This year has absolutely flown by. I think this happens more when you have kids because, as the saying goes, "the days are long but the years are short." 2008 was certainly an adventure-filled one for us, but God has blessed us with our health, our family and our friends.

A quick recap of the year...Ryan and I took a fantastic cruise in February on the Celebrity Century; it was one of our favorite trips. My fourth tax season as a sole proprietor went really well; I am so lucky to have a job I truly love. We had a blast watching Lily as she grew and learned each day, and as she celebrated her second birthday in October. In July, we went on my family's annual vacation to New Smyrna Beach, FL which included side trips to Savannah, Lakeland and Orlando. Our trip to the Magic Kingdom was so much fun; it made us apply for a Disney Rewards visa card so we can start racking up points to take our kids on an amazing trip to Disney in a few years! Of course, we were thrilled with the arrival of Amelia in November. We always wondered if we could love another child as much as Lily, but it only took seeing her to know that wouldn't be a problem. We have truly been blessed this year in so many ways.

I wanted to give an update on where we are in life right now and what is coming up in 2009. Our newest addition, Amelia, is now 6 weeks old which we can hardly believe. She seems to be settling into a nice little eat, play and sleep routine. She eats about every 2.5 or 3 hours during the day and then typically stays awake for 30 to 60 minutes. After that, she will nap for about 1 to 1.5 hours. We try to put her to bed between 10 and 11 at night. Most nights she sleeps until about 4:30 AM, eats for about 15 minutes and then goes back to sleep until about 8:00. She has slept all the way to 8 a couple of times, so we are really hoping that becomes the norm very soon! We have found that if I eat too much dairy, it upsets her stomach and makes her quite unhappy, so I have tried to virtually eliminate it from my diet. I have to warn you that she is quite the hair-grabber. If you have long enough hair (she won't grab Ryan's) and put her on your shoulder, be careful because she has a great grip! On the other hand, she is a sweet little cuddler. She loves to be held and would rather be in someone's arms than anywhere else. I know it won't be long at all before we are really missing the days she will just sit all curled up in our arms. She's a precious, beautiful little girl.

Lily has become a full-on 2-year-old, attitude and all. We hear "Me do it!" a lot. She likes to pick out her own outfits to wear which can lead to interesting combinations. I hear "pink shirt" most days, and she gets very upset if you try to pick something else. She still loves to read books everyday which is a habit I hope she will always have. Her current favorites are her Little People lift-the-flap books and a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse storybook. She also loves to watch certain cartoons (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins) and movies (Finding Nemo and parts of Mary Poppins). She is talking all the time now telling us what she sees, what she wants to do or what she wants us to do; she can be a little bossy at times! She loves to name the colors she sees and count how many of something she finds; she'll count just about anything you put in front of her. She is really good at counting to ten too. She has gone from telling us when Amelia is crying to telling her "stop crying!" She loves Amelia so much though. She often runs up to her and says "Mia's big sister!" which is so sweet to hear. She loves her purple room and will take anyone back there to show it off. She sleeps at night with her little entourage: Mickey Mouse doll, Minnie Mouse doll, Nemo doll, Crush the turtle doll, Big Pink Bear, Little Brown Bear, Baby Doll and her pink blanket. She notices immediately if one of them is missing and says "uh-oh" if one of them falls over. She moved to her "big girl" bed in October, just after her birthday. It took a few days for her to adjust but she eventually settled down and was doing great...until we brought Amelia home. She sleeps through the night, but she has started waking up about 6:15; she had been sleeping until 8, so this is a big adjustment for her and for us. We're trying different things to encourage her to stay in bed longer, but thus far, no luck. She loves breakfast and would eat breakfast-type foods all day. Yogurt tops the list but she also loves toast and multi-grain waffles. She likes fruit a lot too, especially raisins, bananas and oranges. She still enjoys snacking on goldfish, and she loves to drink milk or Motts for Tots apple juice. She eats a big breakfast and then pretty much just grazes the rest of the day; she usually doesn't eat a big dinner which I think might contribute to why she wakes up early, but I don't want to (nor do I think I could) force her to eat more without it being something like cookies. We give her small portions of what we eat, and she can choose how much of it to eat. She's a great little girl, and we feel so fortunate to have two wonderful kids!

Ryan is still in the mortgage business, so if you are thinking about buying a home or refinancing, let him know! I had an opportunity presented to me in late August with my accounting firm. Unfortunately, a long-time family friend passed away at that time; however, his family didn't know what to do with his accounting firm that he had owned for many years (he was my parents' age). After praying for guidance and talking to a few trusted family members and friends, Ryan and I decided purchasing his firm was a good opportunity for me and our family. Luckily, all three of the employees stayed with me, and they helped make sure everything has been taken care of as I try to grasp all the clients' needs. My dad provided invaluable assistance too which I will never be able to thank him enough for. Oh yeah, I had a baby in there too which made things a little crazy! This is going to be an interesting upcoming tax season as I have gone from having about 75 individual clients to about 800. However, with Ryan's support, I think we'll manage and hopefully this will turn into a wonderful business for me.

So, that's where we are now. We look forward to seeing what 2009 holds for us. We wish you and your family all the best too, and hope we can spend time together soon!

Date with Daddy

Lily was lucky enough to have a date with Daddy this morning. He surprised her with a trip to the zoo. Lily has always loved the zoo, but we were reminded of this when she received a Little People Zoo book for Christmas; she loves it and all the animals in it, so we decided it would be nice for her to get to go again.

Ryan said they had a great time. It wasn't too crowded which is always nice. She seems to have a different favorite animal each time she goes. This time it was the flamingos. Ryan said she just stood and watched them for over 5 minutes; she was fascinated by them. She enjoyed counting the animals they saw ("one, two, three, four giraffes" is what she told me). They also rode the train today. It's really not a great train ride; it just goes in a small circle around the kids' area, but she enjoyed it. However, she really loved riding the carousel. She always loves a good carousel ride! She got to ride on a tiger and as they were getting off the ride she asked for "one more time." Ryan couldn't resist making her happy, so they rode again and she got on a bear that time. That's what she told me about when they got home. They also got to have a little snack while there. They have a "toddler bites" where you get to pick three snacks for one price; they enjoyed some cheerios, goldfish and string cheese which are all some of Lily's favorites. Overall, a great outing!

It's amazing what getting out and doing something different does for Lily these days. We're obviously inside a lot more since I don't like taking Amelia out to crowded places before she gets any shots, so I think Lily is starting to go a little stir-crazy. She has been asleep for almost 2.5 hours now which is an hour more than her naps have been recently, and her whole attitude is more laid-back like the sweet little girl she is. I'm so thankful Ryan was able to spend this time with her; he's always a great date!

Makes Me Smile

Ryan always finds new ways to make me smile. On Christmas Eve I had to run a few errands, so Ryan stayed with the girls. They both napped for awhile but then Amelia woke up and needed a new diaper, so Ryan changed it. He noticed she was content on her soft changing pad and that I had just refilled her diaper stash. He took a Sharpie pen and wrote little messages on each one of her little diapers! They say things like "I have the best Mommy," "Let Daddy take you dinner" and "I want to grow up to be like Mommy." So, each time I change a diaper now, I smile and my day gets a little brighter. Is he a great husband or what?!

Christmas Fun

Scenes from around our house...

Getting the cookies ready for Santa.

 Enjoy Santa!

Putting water out for the reindeer

Excited to see her new airplane! 

 Helping Amelia with her stocking gifts.

 Enjoying her new books

 More presents!

 The only gifts I need are these two.

Family Get-Together Pictures

Here are some pictures from our get-togethers with lots of family.  My hands were pretty full most of the time, so I didn't take too many pictures!

Loving the rocking horse from Granna and Papa!

Fun riding with McKayla

With the Farris ladies!

Papa and Molly

Daddy loves holding a sleeping Amelia!

Lily helping Nancy.

Maybe we shouldn't take the picture of Meme with her great-grandkids at the end of the evening.

Bama sure does love Amelia.

 Loved this picture of Lily with Bama and Amelia in the back.

We have such wonderful families!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful and merry Christmas today! It's always fun to celebrate the birth of Christ. We had a great day, so I thought I would tell you about it.

First, we received the wonderful gift of rest from our girls. We put Lily to bed at about 7:30 last night (a little early but necessary given her lack of sleep recently), and she stayed in bed until 7:25 this morning; yea! Amelia went to sleep about 11:45 last night; she was still sound asleep when I woke her up at 7:45 this morning to eat; yea again! It's amazing how much we needed that sleep and how good we felt afterwards. It was awesome! It gives us hope that someday (hopefully soon) we will once again get sleep.

Ryan met Lily as she was coming out of her room towards ours this morning. She looked to see if Santa had eaten the cookies and milk she and Ryan made for him last night (he had), and she noted that the stockings were full. Then she came in to our room, said "Hi Mommy! Cart-ta-toons?" as she does every morning. We watched Curious George for a few minutes and then I went to feed Amelia while she and Ryan watched Mickey Mouse. After Amelia was fed, the four of us went out to see the crumbs Santa had left and check out the toys he left for the girls. Lily was very excited to see she had received a ride-on Mickey Mouse airplane and a new teddy bear. She just wanted to ride on that airplane! It was great to watch Christmas through a 2-year-old's eyes. Amelia received a shape-sorter toy and one of those toys with the beads on the wire like you see at pediatricians' offices. At the moment, I don't think she is very excited about them, but one day she will like them! We finally convinced Lily to look at the stockings that Santa had filled for us all; she received some new paintbooks and a little Goofy doll while Amelia received some car seat toys, books and a snuggly blanket.

After seeing what Santa had left as "prizes" (as Lily still likes to call surprises), we opened our gifts from one another which was lots of fun. Lily wanted to help open everyone's gifts. When she would open one for Amelia, she would look at it and then take it over to Amelia who was sitting in her bouncy seat and would put it on her feet. It was pretty sweet to watch. Several of the gifts for Amelia were hand-me-down toys from when Lily was about that age. It was funny because Lily seemed to like those toys (like Randolph the green-nosed reindeer rattle that she played with all the time) though she obviously didn't remember them. She seemed pretty bored with the gifts that Ryan and I received from each other though we really like them (especially my gift certificate for a massage at Spa Sydell - thank you!!!).

After opening all the presents, we checked to make sure Rudolph had enjoyed the bowl of water we had set out for him which he had. We finished baking the breakfast casserole, got dressed and headed over to my brother's house to celebrate with my family. Christmas brunch is one of our favorite meals of the year; we start talking about how we are looking forward to it the day after Thanksgiving. I brought the apple-cranberry casserole, Wayne makes the egg and sausage casserole, Mom brings garlic-cheese grits and biscuits while Meme makes gravy for the biscuits, sausage, country ham and bacon (we like meat in our family!). It is absolutely DELICIOUS! Lily was occupied playing with McKayla and Molly's toys so she didn't eat much other than the country ham, but she had a lot of fun.

After enjoying breakfast, Meme, Randy and Georgia left to visit some of our extended family while the rest of us opened more presents. Lily was thrilled to get a rocking horse from Granna and Papa; she absolutely loved it and refused to share it with Molly (she is usually pretty good about sharing). She also loved the little drawing lap table that Wayne and Dianne gave her. Again, she helped open the presents for Amelia, Ryan and me; she is really getting the hang of ripping wrapping paper off! It was a great time spent with family.

We came home and both girls took nice long naps which allowed Ryan and me to rest and take naps too; we're really enjoying this sleep-thing! After we all woke up, we played with the new toys, read books and simply enjoyed our time together. Mom and Dad came over to visit and see what Santa brought the girls which was nice. We ate some dinner, gave Lily a bath (she enjoyed her new bath toys) and put her to bed. Ryan and I are watching "Get Smart" which is pretty funny; hopefully Amelia will go to bed soon and get another good night's sleep.

What a wonderful day! I will put up some pictures very soon so you can see the fun we had. I hope your day was as great as ours!

What A Night!

Tuesday was a great day. I put Amelia down Monday night about 11:00, and she slept until 4:30 on Tuesday morning. She went back to sleep easily after nursing and slept until 7:45. Ryan had two closings in the morning and then came home early; we were so excited to have our friends, the Sepulvedas, stop by for a visit too on their way through town as they headed to Birmingham. We had a nice evening spending time as a family and put Lily to bed without any problems. We had great hopes for the evening of finishing up some last minute Christmas details, giving Amelia a bath, etc.

Then, 8:30 came around. I was drying my hair when I see in the mirror that Ryan is holding Lily as they walk into our room. Lily is covered in vomit...gross. Ryan had heard Lily crying and saw on the monitor she had gotten out of bed, so he quickly put Amelia down and went to check on Lily. This made Amelia mad, so she was screaming from her room as we tried to calm Lily down. I was in charge of cleaning her up while Ryan went to clean up her room. We remembered from last time that the doctor said to keep her up for at least 30 minutes after she throws up to make sure she's okay, so we started watching Mickey Mouse and Little Einsteins to keep her awake and alert. Unfortunately, she threw up several more times as we watched, so we had to keep resetting our limit. It was terribly sad to see her face as she was getting sick. She was so scared, and there was nothing we could do to help. The worst part was she kept saying "water please" but we couldn't give that to her because she was throwing up the liquid we had given her too. A friend suggested today that we give her small ice chips if this happens again which I thought was a good suggestion. Finally, just after midnight, we were able to put her back down to bed for the night. She was back in our room at 7:25 this morning though, so today (Christmas Eve) has been a little rough as she is simply exhausted. She even put herself down for a nap at 11:15 this morning which is nearly 2 hours before her normal nap time. Thankfully though, she seems fine, so we think it must have just been something she ate.

The hardest part during all of this was trying to keep Amelia settled too. She has a very difficult time getting to sleep before about 11 each night unless someone is holding her. Anytime one of us would put her down, she would start screaming while we were trying to help Lily. Really quite frustrating. She finally fell asleep at about 10:30 (and slept until 5:45 this morning!) but it was not fun running between the two kids for several hours.

We know we are so blessed to have two healthy children and everyone has nights like this every so often, but that was not very comforting last night! Here's hoping we have a better night tonight.

Christmas Get Togethers

We love Christmastime! We have already had three of our family Christmas get togethers, and they have been so much fun.

Last weekend, my mom's family was in Birmingham to see my cousin Jason graduate from Samford (congratulations!). We knew we wouldn't be able to drive up to Tennessee this year for Christmas, so they came over here after graduation instead of going home. We were thrilled that Granny, Johnny Wayne, Nancy, Deanna and Jason were able to meet Amelia. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and time together opening presents. Lily loves to open presents whether they are for her or not! Granny gave Lily a Sleeping Beauty DVD autographed by one of her friends who was the original voice of Sleeping Beauty; pretty cool! We're keeping it out of her reach for now though I know she will treasure this someday. The girls and I also had brunch with the family the next day while Ryan went to church. This was a wonderful weekend spent with family we don't get to see enough.

Some of Ryan's Birmingham family was in town last week, so we had Christmas with them yesterday. Lily was overjoyed with all her new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Care Bears and Finding Nemo toys and books; we have been been reading and playing with them almost non-stop. Of course, the best present was the time Liz spent here helping out with the girls so Ryan and I could rest a little bit. Big time thank you!

Saturday night we got together with my dad's family at my cousin Jodi's house. This is always a fun time that starts with tons of delicious food. We realized on the way out there that Amelia is not a big fan of her car seat. Unfortunately, it took us almost an hour to get there through traffic; our nerves were shot when we arrived but handing her off to Papa and talking to family made it better. Amelia did really well once we arrived, and Lily had a blast playing with a rocking horse in the playroom. I always love the tradition we have of reading the Christmas story and then listening to Meme talk to the kids about the meaning of Christmas. We also sing a Christmas carol and Silent Night was chosen this year. Lily looked terrified when everyone suddenly started singing; if you had heard us, you would understand why. This was a great evening!

I'll try to post some pictures from these soon, but things are a little hectic right now trying to get the last minute details finished before Thursday.

We unfortunately are not going to be able to see Ryan's Florida/Chicago family this year at Christmas. It's just too much to try to travel with a newborn. We're going down to Lakeland in May for his cousin's wedding though, so we'll be able to catch up with everyone then and introduce them to Amelia. In case you're wondering, my mom is going with us then so she can keep the girls during the wedding so they don't disrupt the ceremony or reception. Anyway, we will miss seeing them, but hopefully they always know we love them and are thinking about them!

Update on Lily

I have been trying to keep up with some of the fun things Lily has been doing these days; there are a lot of them and I know I haven't recorded all of them, but here's some of them...

Remember that our mailman came to the house as Santa Claus to bring gifts and take pictures with the girls? Well, a couple of days ago, I had to sign for a package that the mailman was delivering and Lily answered the door with me. She stared at him and waved to him as he left, but as I was closing the door, she looked at me and asked "Santa Claus?" I replied "He does look like Santa with that white beard, doesn't he?" She said "Yea!" and then ran off to play. Can't pull much over her these days!

She is saying lots of funny things too, so here are some of my favorites. "One more time!" as she also holds up one finger. This is when she wants to do something fun again. FYI, she usually wants to do whatever she is asking for more than only one more time. "Hi ya!" This has become her new greeting. She'll say "try again" when something doesn't go the way she thinks it should. For example, she will build tall towers with her blocks and when the finally fall over, she'll laugh and say "try again!" "Let's go!" This is a favorite of hers when she wants you to go to her bedroom and play which is often. She now loves to sing too. When you ask her to sing though, instead of singing any kind of a song, she will bust out with "Laaaa! Laaaa!" It's adorable.

At school, they obviously tell them to "listen" at various times. When I tell her someone is coming to visit, she will say "listen," put her hand up to ear and turn towards the door. After a second, if the person hasn't arrived yet, she will say "no, try again" and put her hand back up to her ear. It's pretty cute to watch.

It's so interesting to me to watch her watch a tv show now. She has really started to participate with the shows. For instance, Mickey Mouse will ask which "mousekatool" should be used to assist with a task at hand and then pause; Lily will answer him with the correct tool. She will also count with them which is great. I also love to watch her with the Little Einsteins. They ask you to pat your knees to help Rocket blast off for their mission. Lily will say "more power!" and pat her knees. Then she raises her arms (like they instruct) and says "blast off!" It's really cute to watch.

As I said above, she likes to play in her room. What does she like to do there? Climb onto her bed. Sometimes she will use the little step stool that we have at the end of her bed, but she really likes to hoist herself up over the guardrail, Army-Commando style. Really, I think she has to be pretty strong to do this. She thinks it is so much fun. She also loves to try doing somersaults. She has successfully gone over a few times, but typically she kind of falls to the side. She likes that though; it makes her laugh. She has one of the best laughs. I could listen to it all day!

Playhouse Disney Live

Ryan and Lily had a daddy-daughter date last Sunday evening. They went to Phillips Arena to see Playhouse Disney Live, and both had a fantastic time! We knew Lily had to go see this show as soon as we heard about it. All her favorite characters from her favorite shows were going to be there...Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, My Friends Tigger & Pooh and Handy Manny. The animals were in costumes but the "people" characters were real individuals; of course, Rocket was there with the Little Einsteins too. Ooh and Aah made an appearance before the show started; Lily loves to see these monkeys! They had great seats too which made the experience even better. I am putting a few pictures up that Ryan managed to take. I hope they get to go on dates like this for many years to come because the bond between a dad and his daughter is a very special one. Lucky for Lily and Amelia, they have an amazing daddy!

Visitors and Dates

We are very lucky to have some of Ryan's family visiting this week. Bama and Kendall came over on Tuesday. Kendall had to leave today to return to work, but Bama will be here until Sunday. Not only is it WONDERFUL to have people here to help with both the girls, but it allows Ryan and me to have a couple of dates...yea! Last night we went to Parkway Point to see the movie "Four Christmases" with Vince Vaughn and Reece Witherspoon. It was hilarious! We both loved it. We had gift certificates that also gave us drinks and popcorn. What a wonderful treat!

We are also excited that tomorrow evening we get to go to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Nava. I cannot tell you how much we are looking forward to their cheese fritters appetizer; it's delicious. Again, we have Buckhead Life gift cards so dinner will be free; that makes the dinner even better!

We always love to have family come and visit; the dates are an added bonus!

Update on Amelia

Amelia had her one-month check-up with Dr. White yesterday. She is doing great! She weighed in at 9 pounds, 5.5 ounces which is in the 50th percentile. Her height is 21.5 inches which is also in the 50th percentile. Since she was in the 50th percentile for both of these when she went in for her first check-up, this is a great sign that she is growing at a good, steady rate. Thankfully, there were no shots at this appointment. Dr. White said she looked and sounded good and would see us again in a month. I can't believe she is already a month old!

Amelia has settled into eating about every 2.5 to 3 hours during the day which is nice. We put her down sometime during the ten o'clock hour at night, and she sleeps until about 2:30. I feed and change her then put her back down until she wakes up again at about 5:30. After another feeding, she goes back to sleep until about 8:00 or 8:30; I typically wake her up at this time to get her day started and get her used to a routine. To be honest, I will be happy when she drops the 5:30 feeding; I can handle getting up once during the night, but I hate that second wake-up call! Of course, it will be nice when she drops that 2:30 one too!

There are two issues with Amelia that we're having now that I would love to figure out. First, she is still falling asleep when she nurses. She eats for about 10 minutes and then falls asleep. I try really hard to get her to wake up (I don't want her to think that she needs to eat to fall asleep) to either eat more or just "play" for a little bit, but it just doesn't seem to be working. The other issue is that Amelia has been really gassy for several days now. I have decided to pretty much cut dairy out of my diet for several days to see if that makes a difference. Lily had similar issues when she was a baby and this helped, so I am hoping it will help Amelia too. However, if any one out there has suggestions for either of these issues, I would love to hear them.

Sleeping Lily!

Remember the music idea Ryan had to help Lily stay in bed? Well, it seems to work! In fact, it seems to help her sleep a little longer when it comes on. Last night, we put her to bed and reminded her to stay there until she heard the pretty music this morning. The alarm is set to start playing at 6:45, but she stayed in bed until 7:25! Hopefully this trend will continue!

Pictures with Mandy

We were so thrilled that my cousin, Mandy, was able to come the day after Thanksgiving and take pictures of our precious new little one and our family. We were so impressed with what a great job she did! I still haven't downloaded all the pictures, but I am putting up two of my favorite ones. Pretty cute kids, right?

Santa Claus!

We were very lucky on December 6 to get a visit at our home from Santa and Mrs. Claus! Not surprisingly, Lily was a little hesitant when they first arrived, but as soon as he gave her a little present (Little People's Christmas Time is Here book), she was very excited. He also brought Amelia a little book (Snowy Bear and Friends book) which Lily opened right next to Amelia so she could see what her present was. Then, Santa read a couple of books he brought to her. She didn't want to sit in his lap as he read though; she wanted to sit in my lap and look through the books. Finally, on the promise of stickers from Mrs. Claus, she sat in his lap for about a minute to take a picture with him and Amelia. We are thrilled to have these special visitors come to our house!

Lily Update

It's been awhile since I have posted...things have been a little crazy around here lately! We're settling into being a family of four. Lily has adjusted pretty well to having Amelia around. She is so sweet to her little sister. She looks for Amelia as soon as she walks into a room. When she finds her, she very gently pats her head and says "Hi Mia!" She can't easily say Amelia yet so we hear Mia a lot. As soon as she hears Amelia cry, she'll alert us by by saying "Mia crying!" Seriously, it's the smallest little whimper and it will be like the National Weather Service alerts with "Mia crying! Mia crying!" Then, most of the time, she'll run over to her, pat her gently on the head and say "It's okay Mia." She has gotten into telling me that she should "eat more" to get her to stop crying. If I'm feeding her, she loves to bring blankets over for her because she likes for things to be "cozy." She loves getting a clean diaper out for Amelia too; this is probably because they have little Sesame Street babies on them which she likes to see, but hey, it helps! It's really so sweet to watch her with Amelia. I hope this will lead to a lifetime of a close friendship for them.

I was very concerned how Amelia's middle-of-the-night waking would affect Lily. Unfortunately, for the first couple of weeks, Lily was getting out of bed in the middle of the night which was so frustrating. However, once we went back to turning on her humidifier (we sneak into her room after she falls asleep because she was getting up to turn it off), she has gone back to sleeping through the night. She has still been getting up in the 6:00 hour which we hate. We are not early-risers! Ever since she was about 10 months old, Lily has been sleeping until at least 8:00 in the mornings so this is big change. We are trying to get her to stay in bed until 7; we think that's reasonable for a two-year-old who goes to bed at 8PM. We are trying something new to help with this. We have put an instrumental CD in as her alarm clock and we are trying to get her to stay in bed until she hears the music. The last two days she has gotten up before it went off, but Ryan took her straight back to bed where she fell asleep. It even seems like the music helps her sleep longer as she was there until 8:15 this morning! I'll let you know how this strategy goes.

Even though it's frustrating to us when Lily gets up before we want her to, it's still really sweet. We let her get in bed with us after 7, so she can watch Disney cartoons or, as she calls them, "car-ta-toons." She likes to get under the covers with us (and the baby doll she brings from her bed) which I like because it can give us some snuggle time. Also, while she watches and we continue to sleep, she will just lean over and give me a kiss on the cheek or pat my head. It's the sweetest thing in the world!

Overall, I think Lily is beginning to settle into her role as big sister. She is such a sweet little girl, and she seems to be totally in love with Amelia. She has her moments of jealousy, but she is really doing great. I think we are very fortunate to have two wonderful little girls!