Who loves the snow???

I had to strap Julia on and zip her up, but we were still so cold we only lasted long enough to get a few pictures (less than 5 minutes!)

Woopsie, I completely neglected to post about this a few days ago. Here it goes! We had a few days at the end of last week (Friday & Saturday) that we got our first snow of the year. Lexington didn't get pooped on by the snow gods quite like the rest of the state, but we still got a good bit of snow. The kind that shuts down school and makes everyone stay home for fear of the conditions of the roads. Everyone except for Dan, of course, who has to be at work come hell or high water (or snow, in our case). Side note: what does that mean, "come hell or high water?" I don't know, but I'm sure Luke will tell me. :) Anyway, back to the topic of playing in the snow. This time last year Ellie hated the snow. I remember Tudi and I took her for a walk in it to test out some snow bibs we found on clearance. She wouldn't even let me put her down, so we took back those bibs - good thing Lands End will let you return anything. THIS year was another story all together! For two days in a row Ellie & Dan played outside in the snow. Friday was still pretty chilly (in the teens) so they didn't last long. But Saturday the temp was a bit more tolerable and the two of them were outside for an hour and a half. Ellie & Dan both sported pink cheeks and wet sox when the finally came back inside. They had hot chocolate (chocolate milk for Ellie) and then it was time for a good siesta! What fun it is to play in the snow with daddy!

We let Levi lose :)

Julia's Happenings

Look who's found her thumb! Like Ellie, Julia never took a pacifier... she was shocked and appalled that I even offered it to her (over and over and over, hoping it would soothe her back in those early days). In the past two days Julia has gotten very good at locating the right thumb and munching on it whenever no one has given her anything else to chew on. Chewing is THE cool thing to do at this age, I'm told. She has also developed a nice rosy case of eczema on the cheeks from too much slobber transferring to the skin. And she's almost 5 months old!

Julia went to the doctor on Tuesday this week for her 4 month check up. Even though the actual 4 month mark was Dec 19th. Apparently an appointment was too difficult to secure during that time. Either that or her doctor was off, I never did figure it out. Anyway. She weighs 15 lb & 3oz, 25.75 inches, and her head was 41.5 cm. Two shots were given in her little left thigh and she did nothing but stare at the nurse and frown a bit. Then she smiled when I picked her back up. The nurse couldn't believe she didn't cry... I say thank goodness for shot blockers, love those things.

Julia's Schedule:

The morning is iffy now that she's sleeping longer. For a 3 day stretch she slept from the 10:30 pm feed to 7am and I was in heaven! Then the next morning she woke at 3:30 am...

5:00a feed - really trying to stretch this out to 6am
7:00a up, eating & going for the day and awake for 2 hours - which is a new thing for her, but if she's awake for a good 1 hour 45 min stretch or 2 hours she will take a good nap. If not she'll take a 45 min nap which just isn't enough
9:00-ish nap
10:30a up & eating
12:30p nap
2:00p up & eating
4:00p nap
5:00p up & eating
7:00p feed & to bed
10:30p dream feeding

I actually like this schedule when it starts at 8am. If she eats at 5am I can get her to "start the day" at 8am and this means she naps around when Ellie naps (at 2pm every day). Otherwise they are on completely opposite schedules and I don't have any time alone throughout the day. Most days we do not start at 8, it really is a little too late and sort of messes up the day as far as running errands goes. But oh well! Errands seem to run into naps all the time, it's something we have to get used to.

Sister Shades

Aunt Katy and I hit up a few stores just after Christmas... sans chillins, thanks to our wonderful husbands. Of course we only made it to the kid stores, but what else is new these days. I think they're more fun to dress than I am. I mean, why did God give me two girls if not to have fun dressing them? hah. Back to the shades. All the girls scored some new sunglasses in our search for good deals. These are the Gymboree one's that have stretchy sides. Ellie has had a pair of them for the past year or so that have been wonderful (until the screw fell out of one side). I'm thinking I overestimated how large Ellie's head is, but oh well, she'll grow into those jumbo sunglasses! Julia seems to like hers just fine, but we kept the tag on them for a bit anyway.

Hope everyone is staying warm! I hear in Louisiana it's in the teens!

We had ourselves a Very Merry Christmas...

VERY MERRY, I tell you! Pop, Tudi & Nana drove up from Louisiana to celebrate the holiday with us. We couldn't have been more excited that we didn't have to spend Christmas alone this year (as opposed to last year when it was us and Uncle Erik... small crowd). The day after Christmas, Luke, Katy & Avery arrived and the fun continued. Uncle Erik was also there this year and added to the fun!

Apparently, two good little girls live here so Santa decided to stop. Since Ellie & Julia already have enough toys to keep the two of them busy, we let Santa know that he didn't have to bring much to make them happy. So he brought Ellie a cash register, an ABC puzzle, a new sippy cup (that looks like a grown up car coffee cup), and a stocking. Julia got a little phone, a sippy cup with her name on it, and a stocking. Ellie's stocking had a bouncy ball, goldfish, reeses, purple stocking cap and gloves, an ornament, and a Cars notepad. Julia's stocking had lots of baby food, baby legs, several pairs of sox, and an ornament. Ellie was quite excited! Julia is just happy flappy no matter what she has in front of her.

Ellie actually got into the gift opening this year and figured out there were a number of presents for her to open, so she wasted no time. Nana was patient enough to hold almost every gift while Ellie opened it. For a little while we had to open every box (once it had been unwrapped) and read every new book. I was impressed at her desire to savor the moment and take her time with her new things. But alas, as you parents all know, you can't exactly play with every toy as you unwrap it, so we had to speed her along.

Julia was clueless about the festivities, but the excitement did not escape her. She enjoyed being held by Nana (her great grandmother), Tudi & Pop over and over for two and a half days. It took her a week to wind down from things, and I'm pretty sure she wishes someone were still here to hold her and chat her up.

I made a slide show (my first one) so grin and bear it, if you please. A very late and Merry Christmas to you all.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Weekly Activities

So I haven't posted anything that Ellie has been doing for a few months now... since October to be exact. I blame the lazy-gods because, well, they're to blame for most of my neglected projects (and there are several). [Disclaimer: for those of you who started to get concerned about me after reading the last sentence, I know and believe in God Almighty who was and is and is to come, so don't get worried about me.]

Before leaving town for Thanksgiving, I had been suffering from a severe case of the burn outs. Poor Ellie had been inflicted too, and Julia had no choice but to cope with her first bout being so darn new to the household. So we were all quite a boring bunch to be around. I have also slacked off on recording what goes on around here, so my shortage of photographs has kept me from a Weekly Activities posting.

As I looked back over the pictures I had, I could only narrow it down to 35... so I had to make a slideshow in order to get them all on the blog. A bit of background, I decided to start a "school" time with Ellie to try and differentiate her activity-lessons from just playing around the house. Dan even made her a school table that is pictured in the slideshow. Over the past 6 months or so, I have tried in vain to set up a Montessori-type environment for Ellie. It seemed that she constantly took all of the new activities and re-purpose them as food or a phone or something from her imagination and out of my control. I have now surrendered to her form of play, I've decided it must be the way she learns best. More on my Montessori thoughts in another post.

And if it looks like most things are done in PJ's around here it's because that's how we roll. Ellie sees no need to get dressed unless we're going somewhere. Most of the time we do these activities in the morning before proper attire is required anyway.

Here goes! Two months worth of activities. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I'm still getting exclusive!

Ok, so for those of you who left a comment to let me know that you wanted to be included when I make the blog private, thank you! I tried a while back to change the blog and kept running into some error messages... so I still plan on making it private very soon. If you haven't emailed me or left a comment, I probably don't have your info. So shoot me an email or leave a comment if you haven't already. Thanks!
Anna

Julia & the reindeer

Well, Julia got caught making out with the reindeer this year... she's a sneaky one, I tell you. Last year Ellie was given this singing Rudolph by Pop & Tudi (who left town shortly after leaving us behind with this noise-maker and a 15 month old). Thankfully the holiday season was over and we packed him away with all of the Christmas decorations. This year, when we got the decorations out, Ellie spotted Rudolph very quickly and remembered exactly how to make the music start. Exactly. Not to be left out of the fun, Julia took a liking to Rudolph almost immediately and enjoyed chewing on his antlers any time Ellie was not around. If Julia spotted Rudolph, her eyes would get very big and her arms would start flapping, so we would let her have him. It was one such occasion when I caught her chewing on his mouth and nose instead of the antlers. From first glance the two of them appeared to be mugging down. So, I got a picture. Of course she wouldn't munch on his nose while I was trying to collect evidence, but you get the point.