Growing Girls

It seems like in just this past month the girls' vocabulary has exploded! They're using sentences more, responding thoughtfully to questions, singing along to songs, they both can count 1-2-3, and are both just non-stop chatting.  They are also becoming more coordinated and agile: they love dressing and undressing themselves, they can even put the right shoes on their feet about 90% of the time, they have a shopping cart and a baby stroller that they drag race around the house with, and even their once calm baths have turned into mayhem where they request "more water" so that they can swim in the tub.

Emma's Talking Quirks:

Asking if every single thing she touches, picks up, sees, etc is hers. Her words, "Is it mine?" Doesn't matter if you tell her it's hers or not, it's still hers.  She rules this house with an iron first.

In addition to assuming everything is hers, she also assumes a lot of things are "hot." When something is dangerous and I just can't figure out how to explain it to her I say it's hot.  I know, I know, I'm setting her up for some major confusion! Emma catchphrase #2- "Is it hot?"

Continuing in line with the fact that Emma questions everything, she also asks if we see a baby, "Is it my baby?" Recently with new baby cousins and new baby friends the girls have become OBSSESSED with babies.  If we see a baby in person, on tv, in a book, a doll, etc. Emma is sure to ask whether it is her baby.

She loves to sing the alphabet song but pretty much makes the letters up as she goes, however she does like to shout "Peeeeeee" at the end of L-M-N-O-P. 

Olivia's Talking Quirks:

When we're in the car, if I excelerate, Lu likes to yell out, "here we go!"

If a song comes on that she likes she'll say,"let's dance!"

Continuing on with songs...the kid LOVES her music.  She is a particular fan of Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars...she can sing Begin Again and Locked Out of Heaven like nobody's business.  I try to limit Locked Out of Heaven because of the s-e-x reference but unfortunately this kid gets her sailor mouth from her father and has already used colorful words like sh--, f--k, and crap.  Yaaaaa, be me in Target when you're 1 year old says "oh f--k." Thanks Alex...

Overall, Lu's vocab is just all over the place--she likes to talk about the moon, any clocks she sees, she can pretty much name any animal (her favs being elephants and monkeys), she mimics me when I'm on the phone (to the point that I can't use bluetooth in the car because she talks over me),  and she pretty much copies whatever anyone, anywhere says...hence her colorful language :-)

18 Months Photo Shoot

It is nearly impossible to actually photograph both girls at the same time and not have one crying, picking a booger, making a pirate face, or simply face down throwing a tantrum.  It is for this reason that we have avoided doing professional photos because why would I pay someone to capture something I get to witness everyday for free (that was sarcasm by the way).  That being said, I LOVED the photos my older sister had done of my niece Avery and I convinced Alex to give it one go. We also decided to include Avery in some shots so my parents could actually have a photo of all three girls.  I will just summarize the experience to say it was exactly what I expected: exhausting.  Thankfully, for all the work put in by me, Natalie, and the photographer, we actually ended up with quite a few great shots :-) Enjoy!

Photos by Julie Andress

Making It Up As We Go

 We've noticed for the last few months that the girls have been making a big to-do about dirty diapers: grabbing them, ripping them off, announcing to crowds of people that they have "pee-pee or poo-poo," and just generally being very interested in those delightful bodily functions.  We even caught Emma trying to "hold it" while running naked to get into the bath tub...hands down cutest potty dance I've ever seen :-)  One weekend with nothing to do or anywhere to go we decided, heck, let's just buy a couple pottys and see what happens!  We didn't go into this with any plans or really any hope--we had ZERO expectations.  They were so excited to just play with the pottys that that's all they really did the first day.  The next day we got them to sit on them nakey throughout the day but nothing happened.  The next day, a Monday (meaning mom was on her own without dad), I got them up in the morning and sat them on the pottys.  Emma was NOT having it, like full on tantrum, so I wasn't even paying attention to Lu.  I determined that Emma was definitely not ready for this and I wasn't going to push it anymore.  I turned around to grab a naked Lu and she was just staring into the potty repeating "pee-pee" over and over again.  Low and behold I looked in and we had our first success!  She was so proud and so excited that she ran all over the room yelling "pee-pee potty, yaaaaaa!" *Or was that me? No no, it must have been Lu*  Throughout that day, and the week that has followed, she has asked for the potty or to pee-pee.  She could literally sit on the potty all day happy as can be!  She doesn't always "go" but when she does she thinks it's the best thing ever and repeatedly "flushes" her toddler potty to hear the applause.  She is by no means consistent and she won't go #2 on the potty but since our potty training method has been pretty loosey-goosey what can you really expect?  She's too tiny/skinny for the smallest pull-ups and unless I special order her big girl panties she is stuck in diapers anyways.  So until things get a little more consistent she'll just keep wearing her diapers and doing her own brand of potty training hehe.

Checking everything out

She even keeps up her style while potty training :-)

Snowflakes

We've been lucky to have several "snow days" and by lucky I mean it only sticks around for a couple hours and only once have I had to pry my car door open :-)  I don't mind the fun flakes for a few hours here or there because the girls really enjoy it and by about the time I'm over the wet floors/dog...well...it's already over!  Last week the snow actually kept up for long enough that it stuck on the ground for a couple hours giving Lauren, Corey, and baby Penny time to get up here and witness it...baby Penny's first snow day  With a low of 27* today and rain predicted we may get some flakes AGAIN!

The girls have started "sneaking" things in to bed..apparently we run a prison where they feel the need to bring weapons like pizza cutters to bed!

George Strait in Vegas for our 4th wedding anniversary!

Outfits my mom sewed for the girls

Valentine's Day

18 Months + Phone Pictures

It was a rough January in this house! First, dad was super sick and ended up on steroids and antibiotics (I didn't get any sleep for a week listening to him wheeze and cough all night) but then he went and got the girls sick too! After two urgent care visits we finally got Lu on antibiotics for an ear infection and Emma improved on her own.  So, in a two week period, I averaged about two hours of sleep a night only to get up each morning to take care of two extremely angry and uncomfortable little girls.  I pretty much sent a generic text to friends and family that said "Don't judge me if I'm drunk before noon." On the bright side, I somehow managed to escape un-infected! Thank god for small favors huh?  So we got everyone healed just in time for the girls 18 month check up and shots...

The girls' 18 month check up went fairly well: Olivia was her usual stoic self and Emma acted as though it was the end of the world.  And in typical Lu fashion she was given ANOTHER referral, this time to see a dietician to see if we can get her out of the 5th percentile for weight.  I honestly think their pediatrician didn't believe me that Lu actually eats more than Emma on a regular basis!  I also tried explaining that Lu is actually bigger than I was at her age.  I was told my entire childhood I was underweight and my parents were constantly given a hard time but I'm perfectly healthy (and still small for that matter).  However, we will appease everyone and go to this appointment simply because I can always use healthy food ideas for the girls.  Aside from weight both girls have average sized heads and Emma is 33.5 inches tall (90th percentile) and Lu is 32 inches (55th percentile).   Essentially, Alex only contributed to Emma and I only contributed to Lu :-)  These days both girls are talking up a storm, mostly it's jibberish but they seem to carry on hour-long conversations with each other just fine! They are very good mimic-ers...they can pretty much repeat anything you say and Emma has even started repeating small sentences like "up please" and "love you."  Olivia has become obsessed with this book about colors and will sit flipping its pages all day and pointing to each picture and naming what it is.  Most the time she says jibberish but every once in a while she will call the milk milk or the ball ball or the bear bear, she even identified the color purple one day which had me screaming like a crazy person :-) Lu is also my most exhausting child, she constantly keeps me on my toes with baby proofing and she is such a dare devil that I'm afraid I'll have a heart attack before I'm 30.  These days she is foiling all my attempts at keeping her in her crib.  The sleepsack solution worked for us for so long but, alas, life is not to be that easy for us.  My mother would say she is payback for a what a hell-raiser I was.  As of last night I no longer have any throw pillows on my couches because they are all surrounding Lu's crib!  I really do not want to transition to toddler beds because I know Olivia and if she's this wild with a crib...well, give her free reign in her bedroom at night and bad things are sure to happen.  I've already had visions of her scaling the bookshelf and pulling the curtains from the rods.  I wish I was joking but I foresee a long road ahead of us.  Emma on the other hand has never once tried to escape the highchair, has never considered leaving her crib (she loves her sleep too much), and has never jumped off the couch. It is always so incredible to me how different the two of them are given they have been raised in the exact same environment and fed the same diet haha.  Even though they often exhaust me I love them to pieces and I couldn't imagine my life any other way.

Enjoy some pictures I finally downloaded from my phone :-)

Silly girls and their dogs

Just kicking back, watching a little Beauty and the Beast (or "Beeeetsss")

They've become obsessed with taking pictures!

Emma learning how to take her own picture

Doing some shirtless reading with daddy

Not ashamed of her crib situation: sleepsack + pillows

My lefty and my righty

Finally making progress in getting her to let me put her hair up :-)