2 months

NICOLE - 2 MONTHS OLD....MEGAN - 2 MONTHS OLD
WHAT DO YOU THINK - SEE ANY SIMILARITIES?
Or is it just me?

It is hard to believe that Nicole is indeed 2 months old already. She's a sweet thing. She's been a great nighttime sleeper - sleeping 7 hour stretches most nights. She's got a great temperment and is pretty laid back. When she flashes you a grin, it was worth the effort to get it. She's got a strong neck and holds her head up and that just makes her look even more cute. She'll occasionally try to flip over and actually loves to be on her tummy (unlike her sister). We are already having fun little conversations - of course those are made up of cute and funny sounds.

Nicole got a clean bill of heath and our Dr. proclaimed - she's just thriving! Oh yeah - she's thriving.


Height - 24 1/2 inches (97%)
Weight - 13 lbs, 13 oz (97%)


Just as a comparison - When Megan was 2 months old.... she weighed 12 lbs 4 oz, and was 22 1/2 inches long. Nicole's length is where Megan was at 4 months. It'll be interesting to see how Nicole's growth will progress. I still think my 2 girls look amazingly similar. They are definitely sisters!

First Night

Just an update....

The first night in the big girl bed was a success. Megan went to bed easily, stayed in bed, and woke up in a great mood and was happy - in bed. YIPEE! The only challenge was the small gap in between the bed and one of the dressers. We stuffed it with pillows and when I went to check on her before I went to bed, she was sleeping in that little pillow crevice. We got her flipped over and moved around and added more pillows to make a bigger wall - and she never woke up. Very exciting! Let's hope that naptime today goes as smoothly.

Snow!

Keep reading - this is the 3rd post of the day

So, we didn't get a lot of snow - but that didn't stop us from enjoying what we had. Megan loved having an evening romp in the snow. And I was glad she got at least a little taste of the white stuff (and that she got to wear her snow suit again since we didn't get to go to MN this Christmas).
It was a bit chilly so Nicole didn't join us for our outside adventures.

There were some things that Megan really wanted to do in the snow.

Number 1.... make a snow angel! (OK, in Ga snow -it's more like a snow/mud angel).

#2. Build a snowman! She already had this figured out. If we had a lot of snow she'd build a mommy snowman. If we only had a little snowman she'd build a baby snowman. The babies won out!

But she was still adamant that he have stick arms. She gave on the eyes and carrot nose.

#3 - Throw snowballs. Well we had a little trouble with that one - but we still tossed pinched fingers of snow at each other. That's what the first picture is of - Megan throwing snow.

The big surprise was a few hours ago, after Megan was in bed, I went to close some curtains and much to my surprise it was still snowing and our driveway, walkway, street, and most of the yard were all white. WooHoo! I thought it had ended, but evidently a surprise last bit of the system stalled out over the city and dumped a bit of snow. YIPEE. Hopefully we'll get to play in the snow a little bit tomorrow.

The Transition

I have to say it's a little emotional to put my baby to bed in her big girl bed. She was so cute in there. Compared to her crib it just swallows her up. She just snuggled right in and actually went to bed easier tonight than she has in awhile. Now that may be because she went to bed late, and she was exhausted after playing in the snow (that post is coming next) She wanted Nicole to try out her big girl bed. It was so sweet to see them in there together.

And Megan was excited to get to give Uncle Dan, Uncle Tony and Auntie Dawn a tour of her room on Skype. I love Skype! Why did we wait so long to get with it and get hooked up on our video calls. It's been so great and Megan loves being able to see who she's talking to. Now hopefully we'll get Grandma and Papa on there so we can see you when we call.And of course when we were putting Megan to bed, it totally warmed my heart to see her snuggled up with Daddy reading a book. I think that's her new favorite book - Fancy Nancy.

I just went to check on her and she's a big ball in her big bed. So sweet - hopefully she'll sleep really well all night and will sleep in tomorrow morning. And maybe I'll be blessed with Nicole sleeping in as well. :^)

Making the Jump

Yes... it's time! This is my baby after she woke up from a nap.

You can see that in her crib, she likes to set up her stuffed animals and read to them. It's so sweet to hear her wake up and listen to her carry on a conversation and start singing and reading to "her friends."But it is getting a little cramped in there!

But not for long.... yesterday this was delivered....And today we get the mattresses.... Megan is very excited about the jump to her big girl bed. I asked her what she's most excited about and she says, "mommy it has an upstairs, and I can go potty all by myself." She is excited and today her nap will be in the big girl bed. I'm a little nervous about this transition - mostly because we are in such challenging phase of life right now with Megan testing every limit that I'm concerned about how hard it's going to be to keep her in her bed. Especially when she's been saying for days, "after school it's going to snow." Oh dear.

But we are all excited about the bed - her new girly sheets and blankets are in the washer/dryer now. Hopefully it'll all be put together before she gets home. I have a feeling she's going to go bonkers over it.

Sidenote... we did already take the ladder out so we don't have any scaling up to the top without parental supervision. :^)

I'll try to get some pictures up later of Megan in her bed for the first time. So exciting!

And hopefully we'll get some fun snow pictures today - I think I'm worse than kids on wanting snow (just a few days of it though - enough for a snowman!).

How it ended

It was Nicole's first New Years Eve celebration and that little sweetie just had to stay up and ring in the new year.... so of course we did too! Natalie came over to help us usher out the old and welcome 2010. Since we have kids and are pretty much home bound for this occasion - we did it up in style. With an extra set of hands we got adventurous and cooked up some crab legs... YUM!

It was just fun - and Megan was in hog heaven having some extra attention. She loved up on her baby sister to end the year on a good note!

And we actually got our first family picture of 2010!

yawn!

For a few days now I have been thinking about posting this - sort of a "where we are" note. Mostly because I've been struggling to keep up with posts in light of everything going on. Finally after this weekend, I decided to go ahead and give a glimpse. What's going on you might ask?

I'm tired! Now I know I get at least a little grace with an 8 week old. Holy cow - can you believe that Nicole is already 8 weeks old. We have her 2 month checkup on Friday. I can't wait to find out how much she weighs... it'll be a lot I'm sure. And I think she's seriously grown an inch in a week. Her little 3 month outfits are almost too short. Ok, who am I kidding, they are also getting tight around her super cute big Buddha belly. Crazy. But... on the other hand she's a pretty good sleeper. Now we are going to have to work on naps I fear. She's not a napper like Megan was. She likes little catnaps - but hasn't' really organized a nap schedule. Once again, yes I realize she is only 8 weeks old and "schedules" are something we build up to. But she is sleeping between 5-7 1/2 hours at night. A bad night is a 4 hour of sleep night. A good night is a 7 1/2 hour sleep night. Last night - 7 hours.

It's a HUGE blessing... not only because I'm tired - but because the Lord knows that I need every ounce of sleep I can get in order to muster up every ounce of of patience to match the wits of of a fiery big sister.

I'm tired... The baby is exhausting in her own right, but the reality is - wow, my sweet little toddler has found a new way of expressing herself. It's been an challenging couple of weeks. Today I was reading a blog post and it offered me a lot of encouragement as the writer made a statement about how frustrating it is when you "don't see the fruits of your discipline". About every hour I find myself wondering, Lord, what are we not doing correctly. Surely If we were doing this "right" then this stage would pass.... yeah, reality check - sinful, wilful folks we people are - the big ones and the little ones. We went through something like this a few months ago (with all out throw yourself on the ground, kick and scream temper tantrums) and with some changes in our discipline (aka - getting really serious and consistent) Megan turned over a new leaf. And suddenly it's like she decided to once again try us in other areas and turn up the disobedience to a whole new level. OH MY GOODNESS! Today at lunch Megan got a little sassy and was not listening and I had to give her my "teacher look".... Let's say, it's somewhat effective. I think some of the adults were a little shocked at my ability to have a piercing stern look. :^) It does usually stop Megan in her tracks, for a second at least because she knows that look means a line is being crossed. But still, it's exhausting. And just because Megan is aware that she might be crossing a line... that doesn't mean she will stop. Oh talk about being Willful.

So even through the exhaustion we plug away trying desperately to be consistent, prayerful, and loving in our discipline as we work to train Megan's heart to love and follow God obediently (which includes obeying your mother and father).

So - I'm a little overwhelmed and haven't had a chance to work on getting my camera hooked up to my new laptop so I'm amiss in getting some updates posted. But, at least you know why. Tonight I just needed a little vent. So you know where we are, what we are dealing with, and how you can pray for us.... pray for our patience for sure - it's hard to be loving, consistent, and firm when you are tired and irritated.

And in the midst of all this I'll try to get some pictures of our precious (and sometimes trying) little girls.