7 Months

Normally we wouldn't have had a 7 month check up (and we actually do not have any appointments scheduled until 9 months--April, yay!) but because Lu is such a string bean her pediatrician likes her to come in to be weighed often.  The girls also needed the second half of their flu shots so we combined everything for a 7 month check up.  Grandma Linda helped with this so I wouldn't have to baby wrangle on my own and we were in and out fairly quickly.

7 Month Stats

Olivia "String Bean" Marie 14 lbs 1 oz

Emma "Pork Chop" Rae (she wasn't weighed today but if she gained at her usual rate...) ~17 lbs 7 oz

Emma: Has finally learned to like sitting (she officially started sitting on 2/14).  She loves taking a bath so we took away her baby bath and made her "sit" to take a bath with Lu and that is about the most we can get her to sit.  Otherwise Emma would prefer to crawl and scoot around, there's no time for sitting Ma!!  She sort of says ma-ma but mostly she just mimics the inflections in my voice when I say it!

Olivia: Leap Day was a big day for Lu (Feb. 29).  On this day her first tooth (finally) started poking through on the bottom right AND she started saying da-da and ba-ba nonstop.  Literally.  When I say "who is coming home from work" she will say da-da but if she says ba-ba and I say "no, silly!" she then says "da-da." These two words are sort of interchangeable for her right now hehe. *False alarm :-( The tooth hasn't quite broken through yet but it sure is sharp underneath the gum!*

How I birthed such enormously different twins is still a mystery to me hehe.

They were bound to love the bath...I pretty much lived in it when I was pregnant with them :-)

Papa time + our small Disney farm

Trouble Makers

Valentine's Dresses

Silly girls

Typical family picture

7 Months

I think Emma is doing the Carlton...

Playing Catch Up

I finally sat down and took about an hour to upload a ton of photos and organize them!  I've also been "hoarding" (as my husband would call it ) a TON of the girls' old clothes because I hadn't really been ready to part with them.  My first step in clearing out some of the clothes was to offer it to my older sister who is due with a girl this summer.  It took me about two days to separate it all by size/type and then my sister went through it all and took a bagful (I had six to begin, yikes!).  I have an appointment today with a place by our house that buys old/new/gently used baby items to see what I can get for the rest of it.  The sad part is that the two giant trashbags I'm taking do not include the two giant trashbags I made Alex take to storage hehe.  Hopefully I'll get a decent amount of money and be more inclined to sell things in the future!  *Of my two trashbags they ended up taking about one bag worth of stuff and gave me $40...that's better than nothing!* We've also been reorganizing the entire house since the girls have outgrown things like their swings, bumbo chair things, boppies, strollers, etc.  I also made Alex take all that to storage because I'm sure we will use all that stuff again :-)  Sooooo now I am completely OVER cleaning and organizing and I'm sitting on the couch (while the girls nap) watching the special features from the new Breaking Dawn DVD and eating leftover breadsticks with BBQ sauce from Stone Fire :-)

Just cruising

Addicted to Mickey

Say it ain't so!

Best friends

The two loves of my life + the one in the background that crashed this picture

Sporting our Dropkick Murphys onesies for Dad

More Mickey...they can't get enough

Just jumping

Trying out her new jersey...it's a 2T...this kid is going to be huge

These eyes melt my heart

Loving on her lion

She chases him ALL day but he still loves her

RUN Dozer!!

Heading out to a wedding--first time wearing a dress like this since before I was pregnant!

Eye Love Lu(cy)

I had thought about today's appointment for the last two weeks.  I tried not to worry too much but it is difficult not to when I'm constantly reminded of Lu's eye when I look at her :-(  We had to be at the hospital at 8:30AM and because we worried about traffic that means we were up and running by 7AM.  Now 7AM doesn't sound so bad but what I mean by 7AM is that we were out the door...which means I had to be up by 5AM to get everything ready.  5AM??  Yes, you heard me correctly.  We had no idea how long we would be in LA so I had to have a days worth of things for Lu as well as everything set out and easily accessible here at the house for my mom and Emma.  (Somedays when I dream about having another kid I freak myself out about how much MORE time everything will take me with 3 kids!)  Well, it turns out getting up at 5AM wasn't giving myself enough time nor was leaving at 7AM enough time to get there :-(  We left at 7AM, got all the way to the freeway before I realized I forgot my purse!  No ID, no Kaiser cards, no cash for the stupid parking structure that only takes cash or check.  Ughhhhh.  Not a good start.  Luckily, Alex had his ID and because we had to stop in Glendale to do some car switch-a-roos he was able to borrow some cash from one of his employees.  But let me back up.  So now we are on the freeway and it is 7:15AM.  Of course there is tons of traffic leaving SC but I expected that, hence leaving at 7.  As we came up and over the hill into Sylmar Lu decided to have once of the stinkiest diapers ever.  Really?  We just got on the road?!  This is where you have to make those executive motherly decisions that you hope no one judges you for--"Well, Lu, you're gonna have to sit in it until we get to Daddy's shop to do the car exchange."  Cue the screaming that never let up (and my tears as I felt like the worst mom ever).  As we come into Sun Valley it is is 7:30.  I'm getting a little panicky that we might cut it close but I stay positive.  As we come into Burbank it is 8:00AM.  Holy crap, we are going to be sooooo late.  I start frantically calling my mom on speaker phone asking her to find different phone numbers because, of course, I don't have my purse with her appointment card.  We get into Glendale at 8:15AM, Alex does the car switch-a-roo and I change Olivia and throw her back in the carseat.  Now that Alex is driving I can start making phone calls--after much hoop-jumping with the wonderful world of Kaiser phone systems I get through and explain we are stuck in traffic--we are assured they will see us when we get there.  I'm finally able to take it down a notch at this point!  Once we finally got to the hospital (at nearly 9AM) it was lots of back and forth between Lu's hemangioma team and the pediatric ophthalmologist.  I'll spare you all the boring details because the bottom line is her eye is fine!  Never have I been more relieved!  Now, they aren't sure whether the droopiness is from the hemangioma or just the way she was born but the important fact is that they tested the pressure in her eye and her hemangioma isn't causing any pressure.  Pffffeewwww.  The doctor said she has a normal amount of astigmatism in both eyes for her age so she feels as long as everything stays stable Lu should be just fine.  Lu absolutely hated having her eyes dilated but overall she was her usual happy self. 

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I thought I would do some commentary on Emma since Lu seems to get most of the attention when it comes to this blog!  Emma has really started to change.  You think you have their personalities figured out and then all of a sudden they become an entirely different little person.  Emma used to have a hard time dealing with us leaving her for all of Lu's appointments but now I think she cherishes it.  She gets tons of one-on-one time with my mom and hardly seems to notice we are gone.  In addition, it appears over the last few weeks that the girls have switched roles--Lu has become fussy and Emma seems to entertain herself more and more.  I think the main reason for this is that Emma has finally figured out how to really control the walker and now that she can go wherever she wants she thinks she is quite the adult.  She will zoom over to the slider to watch the dogs outside or she zooms over to the chairs if there is a cat sitting on one.  She will come to you if you call her while she is in the walker and her biggest advancement....putting her arms in the air!  I know this sounds weird but if you look at her (when she is in the walker) and say "Yay, arms up!!" she throws her arms up and wiggles like a fish out of water haha.  She is too funny.  She is also sooooo close to being able to wave.  As she watches you do it she lifts her hand up and studies it very intently and sort wiggles her fingers then looks back at your hand.  These two little ladies are my whole world and I love watching all the changes they are going through.  I can't wait to see what each new day brings :-)

This is Emma trying to get as close as possible to watch Mickey hehe!