Sunday, January 30, 2011

Look at all this hair!

Lily's hair is getting so long.  She has never had a haircut!  I told myself when she was born I was going to let her hair grow so that it would all eventually be one length.  Well the back of her hair is growing much faster than the sides.  At one point several months back she looked like she had a mullet.  Brian thinks we need to trim it so it is all even, but I just can't bring myself to do it.  It is so pretty!

Sisters

Marley finally is able to fit in to her "little sister" shirt that matches Lily's "big sister shirt she wore the day Marley was born.  I got them all dressed and asked Lily if she wanted to hold Marley.  She got all excited!  I sat them down in the chair and Lily wouldn't take her hands off of her.  It was like she was being so protective of her little baby, so cute! 





Picture update...

10 weeks old




prince and princess...

sleepy girl...

she loves her fingers...


Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Another trip to the pediatrician!

First of all Marley is 11 weeks old today!  I took her to the doctor this afternoon for a little check-up.  For the past several weeks she has had a red, rashy looking mask under her eyes.  She has also been breaking out on her forehead after being bathed or wiped down in the evenings.  Thankfully our pediatrician thinks the redness is hormone related and she should grow out of that soon.  As far as the breaking out, she suggested we switch detergents and see if that helps.  We have always used Tide Free and haven't had any issues up until recently.  So we will now being washing Marley's clothes separately in Dreft.  Yeah, more loads of laundry!  But if it helps I'm all for that.  On the downside, if the breakouts and rashy looking bumps don't go away in a couple of weeks we are to go back to the doctor to try to figure it out...

I also spoke to Dr. Macklem about Lily's stuttering.  This has been an issue since around the time Marley was born.  At first we thought it was just an attention thing due to the new baby in the house.  We mentioned it to the doctor at one of Marley's check ups and she said that as long as she didn't have any secondary symptoms we should be fine.  Then a couple of weeks ago she began rolling her eyes and opening her mouth really wide when she tried to talk.  I immediately got worried and called the doctor.  She advised us to seek a speech therapist.  We ended up just keeping an eye on it and when we went to the dr today I showed her a video I was able to record of Lily's episode. 

She immediately said we needed to have her evaluated.  She said we would be able to have a speech therapist come to the house for a visit to have it checked out.  She also advised we show the video to them as a tool.  Hopefully this is just a phase and that she will grow out of it soon.  But if not, at least we can try to get it under control before it gets out of hand.  Generally speaking, Lily is a very clear talker and knows lots and lots of words!  Will keep you updated on that...

On a happy note, Marley gained a little over a pound in 2 1/2 weeks!  She is now at 10 lbs 15 oz.  She is talking more and more every day and really wants to laugh but just can't do it yet.  She is really aware of where you are in the room and seems to let you know quickly that she doesn't care for when you aren't paying attention to her or leave the room.  She also loves to chew on her hands if her binky isn't close by.  We avoided Lily sucking her thumb and hopefully we can do the same with Marley. 


              11 weeks old!  Marley surprised me when I put this rattle in her hand...I turned around for a split second and she had brought it up to her mouth and was chewing on it.  What a big girl!


I survived my first weekend back at work.  It is definitely a lot harder to get up at 4:15 am though.  On the plus side, the day seems to go much faster than it did working nights.  By 6 pm I am so ready to get home to see my babies.  I think Friday night and Saturday night I held Marley almost the entire time up until she went to bed.  I just couldn't get enough of her.  She missed her mama! 
The night before I went back to work...

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Potty training

We have been trying so hard to get Lily to sit on the potty.  She absolutely refuses to sit on the thing or the toilet for that matter.  At 2 1/2 yrs old one would think she would be partially potty trained...but no!  We have begun to bribe her with sitting on it.  It worked once a couple days ago and twice yesterday.  Yesterday we spent over an hour in the bathroom sitting on the potty 2 separate occasions.  The first time she didn't go then the 2nd time I forced fluids to see if she would go.  After 2 cups of water and juice I figured she had to go but nothing was happening.  Finally after singing and doing our hair she went.  I think it even scared her.  We high fived and sat there a bit longer to see if she would go more but she didn't.  So we washed our hands and went to get dressed.  But before I could get a diaper back on her she peed on her bedroom floor.  The look on her face was just priceless, in fact I thought she was going to cry.  She helped clean it up and that was that. 

Now today, no interest what so ever.  She won't even consider sitting on the potty.  We have tried stickers, m & m's, juice, tv, you name it but she won't do it.  If she wants to go to preschool this fall she has to be potty trained.  I guess we will just watch her and hope she decides to ready herself!!!

Hmm...


So the big question is still out there on whether or not Lily and Marley look alike.  The left photo is Lily at 7 1/2 weeks.  The right photo is Marley at 10 weeks.  Lily was still much bigger than Marley.  I knew I had a picture of Lily in this same outfit so I had to capture one of Marley too.  We tried this outfit on Marley several weeks ago and she swam in it.  Marley has just begun wearing her 0-3 month clothing in the last few days.  Lily was wearing hers at 1 month of age. 

I don't think they look too much alike but you never can tell. 




Sunday, January 16, 2011

Talking Marley!

 Sweet baby Marley is really talking lately.  Here are a few clips of her gabbing away...Unfortunaley if you want to hear them you will have to scroll to the bottom to pause the music player...

Brr it's cold outside...

We really haven't been up to much this past week.  With the snow and cold weather we have been staying home most of the time other than a few quick trips to the store.  I am not looking forward to going back to work next Friday.  I'm going to miss my girls so much!  We are really starting to get into a routine and I don't want to ruin it.  I'm sure daddy will do great with them when I go back to work.  I will be on day shift for the first time ever at the jail.  I've been there 8 years and have always worked overnights.  This will be a BIG change.  Another big change is Brian and I will be on opposite rotations.  The days he works I will be off and visa versa.  We won't have any days off together unless one of us takes a day off.  It is going to be VERY hard on us but it will be good that the girls don't have to go to a daycare.  We will see how this works for the time being but I'm sure I am not going to like it one bit. 

Anyway, here a few pics over the last week or so...ENJOY!
 OUR BIG SNOW STORM!



 I was all excited about this picture...then I realized the time was off on my camera and it had advanced to the next day.  It was really 11:11 pm on 1/11/11. 

                           Ready to brave the cold!





Sunday, January 9, 2011

Marley is 2 months old!

 2 months old!
My goodness, time is just flying by so quickly.  We took Marley to her 2 month check-up Friday.  She weighed 9 lb 13 oz (26 %), is 22 1/4" tall (50%), and her head circumference is 15.2" (50%).  She got 3 shots and 1 liquid drink.  Overall Dr. Macklem said she looks great and to keep up the good work.  We are continuing both prescription medications she is on for her reflux and gas issues.  We should be able to stop both of them by 6 mos of age. 

After Marley's appointment we drove out to Sams Club to renew our membership since formula is much cheaper there.  Marley was an angel in the store.  We fed her while we were walking around then went to eat lunch at Jason's Deli.  She slept through the whole thing.  Must have been a combination of the shots and the Tylenol we gave her. 

After lunch we picked Lily up from Aunt Teresas and headed home.  Marley continued to do well the rest of the day given her shots.  We were very worried we would have a very cranky girl.  She napped most of the day only waking to eat and slept all night!

Lily and I had a mommy and daughter morning Saturday.  We went to Babies R' Us to stock up on diapers since we had some huge coupons and rewards dollars to use up.  Every little bit helps when you are buying diapers for 2 kids.  Yes, Lily still refuses to potty train.  She screams when you try to sit her down on the potty.  Hopefully one of these days she will just decide she wants to do it!  

Saturday night we were down to 1 child for a few hours.  Taylor asked if she could take Lily to a basketball game and of course we didn't object.  I had completely fogot about it until a half hour before she left.  We didn't know what to do with ourselves. We ended up going to Target to buy baby supplies, rented a movie, and picked up take out.  Marley wasn't the happiest of babies either.  We think she as just plain tired and ready to go to bed.  Oh well. 
8 weeks old


Princess Lily







Sunday, January 2, 2011

Happy New Year

Well our New Year didn't start out the greatest.  It all started New Years Eve morning.  Brian called me from his cell phone when he was supposed to be at work.  I knew that was odd.  He informed me he was on his way to the hospital because his dad was having chest pains.  I stayed home with both girls while he sat at the hospital all day.  They ran a few tests and found out Mike had 90% blockage in one of his arteries so they sent him to surgery to put in a stint.  After the surgery, we were informed that he was ok and should be home Sunday.  He spent the rest of Friday and part of Saturday in ICU.  He is supposed to be released today.  I'm sure he will be back on his feet very soon! 

Then on New Years Day, Brian took Lily up to the hospital so she could see her Papa.  I was home with Marley when all of a sudden the power went out.  Seriously, this had been the coldest day of the winter yet.  When I called OPPD their automated line said "All customer sercvice reps are busy", really?  Anyway I reported the outage and they said it would be approximatley 3 pm until power was restored.  Sick newborn baby + no power = Not Good! 

I called Brian and he came home to check things out.  He checked the fuse box and said everything was fine.  He also said he had seen an OPPD truck down the street. 

Luckily we have a gas fireplace that turned on and Marley and I were going to just stick it out.  The temperature hadn't gone down that much so I figured we would be fine.  Brian left and just moments later "poof"  the power was back on!  Thank goodness it was only an hour. 

Happy 2011 everyone!!!





Look alikes?

A few months ago when we were getting this out of storage under the stairs we came across a picture of me when I was 2.  We held the picture up and asked Lily who it was and she said "Lily".  Needless to say it wasn't.  So after Christmas I got the picture back out and showed her again...she again thought it was herself...So here it is...
Julie at age 2

Mommy Lily

Cutest thing ever...Lily has been playing with her baby dolls a bit more now that Marley is here.  She is quite the little mommy.  She pushes them around in her stoller, feeds them, and wipes their spit-up.  It amazes me how the catch on to stuff so fast.  She even worries where Marley is if she can't see her or if she is sleeping in our room.  So cute...