Firsts, Firsts and More Firsts!!!

So Kyra has been hitting firsts and new things like crazy lately! She peed in the potty for the first time last week, said her first 2 word sentence verbally ("more please") and has been giving her first closed mouth kisses (it's so nice not getting slimed.) Her first premolar came through on Saturday and the one on the other side is VERY close to being through too.

The poor baby also had her first really bloody owie when she tried to lean on my legs while I was wearing a long skirt. She forgets that I'm not shaped like the skirt underneath and leaned on a part where there wasn't any leg to lean on and fell over, biting her bottom lip pretty good. I got her calmed down in just a couple minutes but she bled pretty good and got a big gash on the inside of her lip. She seemed to forget about it completely though until about an hour later when it was time for nap, then she was holding her hand up to her mouth and wanted to be held. ;) She tasted her first feta cheese and made some pretty sour faces and also had black olives for the first time. She loves when you put them on her fingers for her. :) When we were out at Grandma and Grandpa's house last Monday, she rode along in the Ergo carrier on Dad's back and saw the horses, but I think she may have done that before, I'm not sure. She thought they were pretty entertaining at any rate.

Paige now weighs 15 lbs almost even. This is at nearly 3 months. At 4 months exactly Kyra weighed 13 lbs 2 oz. This is a somewhat frightening thing! It's odd though, Paige didn't outgrow her 0-3 clothes any earlier than Kyra did, she just fits better into the 3-6 months clothes from side to side than Kyra did at first. We'll have to see what sort of a growth curve Paige settles onto as her growth slows down.


Both girls did BEAUTIFULLY on Saturday while we were working with a group from church out at the Oral Hull Camp for the Blind. It was the first time I've worn both of them together for an extended period and they did great! Even Kyra was pretty patient in the carrier for over 2 hours straight while I was helping with some landscaping clean-up stuff. During the afternoon while Phil and some of the other guys were working on setting up the Bocce Ball courts, Kyra plaed in the grass by Angi and I for a really long time and did a very good job of listening and staying close to us. She loved rolling in the grass.



I forgot to add before, the other day I had Paige sitting up on the couch taking her picture and Kyra wanted to crawl up and get in the picture so I helped her up and she put her arm around Paige. Then she leaned over and grabbed her Elmo book and got it opened up in front of them and started babbling and pointing at things and turning the pages. She was "reading" to little sister. :)

Strawberries

We got a big box of strawberries at Costco the other day. Kyra TRIED to get Dad to hand them right to her in the cart (he didn't) and then TRIED to steal the ones belonging to the lady checking out behind us off the belt (she couldn't reach, thank goodness for short arms.) She's been eating strawberries with gusto since Monday. :) We thought she liked frozen berries, apparently fresh are just that much better!!!



She's also discovered just how fun empty boxes can be. I'm going to have to get her one out that's bigger than an empty diaper box though because she was having trouble getting turned around once she got into the one she was playing in!

Behind Yet Again!!!!

So we have been VERY busy at our house over the last few week, or at least it seems that way! That's probably part of the reason I've gotten to be SO far behind yet again! So I'm going to try to get caught up all in one big post!
A week ago Monday Paige had both her first appointment with her ENT and it went well. We didn't find out much new, but we really liked him! Then that afternoon (I know, long day for a little girl) she had her 2 month check-up with Dr. Byrne. She weighed 13 lbs 6 oz and was 23 inches long! She sure is growing! That put her in the 95th percentile for weight and the 75th for height. For comparison, at Kyra's 2 month check she was 11 lbs 2 oz and 23 1/2 inches long. :) The results from her hip/kidney ultrasound came back clear (Praise God!!!!) so she won't have to wear an icky sling to help keep her hips inline. When Joy, the medical assistant, came back in after the doctor had done her check to do vaccines with one of the other assistants Kyra started crying. Apparently she's figured out that when TWO ladies come in with gloves and needles there are going to be shots! She calmed down pretty quickly once she figured out the shots weren't for her. Paige was sleeping when they came to do them and cried just a little bit, then went back to sleep. She spiked a fever and was sort of fussy that evening and a little cranky the next day but by day two she was feeling pretty much better. I've decided to start a second blog to keep track of Paige's medical stuff regarding her little ear so it's easy for me to keep track of and doesn't take over here when she has a bunch of appointments near each other. I'll put the link in the sidebar here for anyone who's interested. :)
She's cooing and babling now and is just so alert! It's hard to believe how fast she's growing and changing. A couple we're friends with at church had their baby last week and she is a tiny peanut (5lbs, 14oz when she was born) and compared to her, Paige looks toddler size! Paige got a new papasan stlye bouncer (well, new to us, Yay for Craigslist!) that can sit in the bassinet part of her pack-n-play to try sleeping in at night to see if she'll go down any earlier. She's been wanting to go to sleep for the night around 2 a.m. and then sleep in, which would be fine if Kyra didn't get up between 7 and 8! The bouncer seems to be helping some. Last night I got her down to sleep for the night before midnight and she slept in her chair for over 7 hours! Definitely worth the $8. :)
Kyra has been a busy little bee the last few weeks too. She's adding new words/signs every day. We've started singing songs that have hand motions with her now and she LOVES it! Especially "I Just Wanna Be a Sheep" (a song I sang at camp when I was little, there are videos on youtube) because she can sing along on the "baa baa baa baa" part really well. She still dotes on her little sister and loves to kiss and hug on her, tickle her and help Mama burp her. She's eating like crazy, but still sitting right around 21 lbs weightwise, she's just so busy she burns it all off! Sunday is probalby her favorite day of the week. After church we come home for a quick nap and then head off to softball. She is a great sport and claps whenever anyone else claps, regardless of which team they're cheering for. She's catching on to the fact that her dad is doing something out there and looks for him now when I point out that he's on the field. She loves seeing the other little girls and visiting with the other spectators.
Yesterday she had two "big" moments. She used the potty for the very first time.... sort of. (I noticed she was needing to go and grabbed her and took her in there to sit on it and she went.) We have a nifty toilet seat where there's a child-sized seat that folds down out of the lid of the regular seat for people with little bottoms and this was our first time trying it out. I know this isn't a huge step towards potty-training or anything (we don't plan on potty-training until November) but one less icky diaper to change is one less and that's always exciting! The second "first" of the day was that she remembered how to climb down off the couch by herself without help! We've really been working on this one because she has a tendency to get up there and then forget how to get down and sit there and yell until someone comes to help her turn over and scoot down. Of course, after doing it right once, she forgot the next time and needed to be reminded. :)

16 Months - 8 Weeks

Kyra and Paige are now 16 months and 8 weeks respectively and it's just amazing how fast they're both growing and changing! (Well, they're both changing but Paige is definitely doing more aggressive growing at this point.) Kyra is still very much in love with her little sister and loves when we let her "hold" Paige (with some grown up help of course.) Paige gets more kisses and cuddles than she'd probably like, but we're just happy that Kyra doesn't show any signs of being jealous of little sister.
Kyra's language skills are growing by leaps and bounds. She still doesn't have a huge amount of spoken words but she's on par for normal. She says Dog, Dad, Food (Boof), Mama, No, Up, Echo, Duck, Papa, More, Done and Go. She makes cat, dog, elephant, cow, duck and car noises too. Her signs though are what are really expanding her vocabulary. She's constantly wanting the signs for new words and she's using them to communicate with us. She does please, help, up, baby, thank you, milk, more, drink and done and is working on some new ones and she'll string together two and three signs in a row to get her point across (like Help, Please, Milk.) She doesn't have any new teeth yet beyond the front eight, but we can feel the bumps where she's working on her premolars and I would guess that when those do start coming through they're going to come fast and furious! She had her first haircut yesterday and did VERY well for a 16-month-old (from what I know of children's haircuts at least.) Her hair was just so much longer on the sides than the back and so many different lengths that it was getting tangled too easily and taking too long to fix in the morning (20-30 minutes a lot of days and that usually wore on my patience before hers even.) We went to a place called "Little Clippers" on the advice of a friend who gets her little girl's hair cut there and it was great! They cater specifically to kids and most of the "chairs" are actually little cars on hydraulic lifts. Kyra was a little too nervous to do a car by herself so she sat in an adult chair (they have one or two) on Dad's lap for the cut. Julie who cut her hair was very nice and Kyra watched a movie and played with a basket of toys while it was being done. She did NOT like the blowdrier so we stayed and played on the climbing toys for a few mintutes after the cut so her hair could dry and Julie could trim the little straggles that were left afterwards. They gave her a certificate for her first haircut with a lock of her hair attatched and a balloon which she didn't find all that exciting until we got home. Now she has a very cute little bob and just looks so grown-up! If you live in the Portland area I HIGHLY reccomend checking out Little Clippers for your little guy's haircuts. They have one in Clackamas where we went and another in Lake Oswego and are very reasonable price-wise too.
Paige is changing every day too. In the last week her personality is just blossoming and she's smiling, cooing and laughing a lot. She really loves riding in her stroller, especially if Dad is pushing. She looks up and grins and makes faces at him. She's going to be rolling over before we know it, she's already close and can go from side to front/back or from back/front to her side but can't quite get all the way over. She's discovered her teddy bear and decided that he's a pretty interesting fellow. He doesn't have a name yet. Since Kyra's bear is just "Bear, or Bear Bear" we should probably get a little more creative on this one. She's going to outgrow most of her 0-3 months clothes here pretty soon and she hasn't even worn them all yet since we've had so many nice days and there were quite a few warm outfits in her hand-me-downs. She's wearing her first 3-6 month outfit today and it's not even that big on her!

Something Odd...

Anyone notice something funny about the new pictures?

Mum's Day

On Sunday, Phil took us up to the zoo! It was BUSY, much more so than last year on Mother's Day. So busy in fact that, since the parking lot was full, they were shuttling people from extra parking to the zoo on buses. That was sure fun with the double stroller, but it worked. :) We had lots of fun seeing the animals but didn't quite get to all of them because Kyra was wearing out. Both girls conked out in the car on the way home so we skipped lunch out so they could have their nap.
On Monday, Paige was officially 6 weeks old!! She had her first ever bottle of expressed milk and did great with it, gulped down all 3 1/2 ounces! Now if we can just get her to KEEP taking an occasional bottle, maybe we can leave her for more than half an hour before she's 8 months old! She's just changing so much already. She's SO strong and has great head control, maybe even better than Kyra did at this age. She loves watching the butterflies on the swing and riding in the MeiTai. She's so alert and is always watching everything around her. She has the prettiest eyes and they're always busy.
We were at the grocery store today and one of Phil's co-workers recognized Kyra and I and stopped to see the new baby. She said Paige looks just like Phil! I think it's extrememly funny that I said Kyra looked just like Phil and everybody said no, she didn't. However, Paige looks just like Kyra did as a newborn (if you don't believe me I can show you pics side by side) just with less hair and everyone swears that Paige is just the spitting image of Phil! I see a lot of their Dad and a little of me in both of them. :)

Grocery Store Survival With Two Under Two

The concept of "running to the store" no longer exists for me so it's a good thing Phil works there because otherwise I'm sure we'd end up with some pretty interesting dinners when a necessary ingredient was left out because it just wasn't worth the trip to the store. (Like the other day when I was debating about what I could use to frost Paige's 1 month birthday cake that didn't contain any butter.) If we don't need milk or diapers, I don't go to the store until we have a decent sized list going. I thought I'd share just WHY that's the case when dealing with our two little angels by telling about our shopping experience yesterday (the first one out with both girls since the grandparents left.) This was a GREAT shopping trip mind you, about the best I could hope for. We go shopping in the afternoon after nap and lunch are out of the way normally. We try to shoot for being done shopping right around four when Phil gets off work so he can help us get stuff into the car and then into the house without having to hang out there too long after he's done working. I started getting the girls ready to go at 1:00p.m., shooting for leaving at 3:00 since we didn't have too long of a list today. We pulled out of the driveway at 3:40. Other than being late however, we were in pretty good shape. Both girls had been changed, the baby had been nursed and Kyra had a snack. The grocery list was totally written and I made sure I had my wallet and crackers in the diaper bag in case Kyra got the munchies. The strategy for getting out the door is to put Paige in the meitai, grab the diaper bag, pick up Kyra and check to be sure she's still wearing two shoes and then grab the keys with whatever spare fingers I can find to lock the door before getting them each buckled in their seats while Kyra is reaching over trying to tickle Paige. Upon arriving at the store (right next door mind you) I have learned to park beside a cart return that has carts in it. Then I get out, grab a cart and after checking to be sure it has BOTH ends of the seatbelt buckle intact and no bent or stuck wheels throw the diaper bag in and put the buggy-cover on before getting Kyra out and buckling her in before getting Paige out to buckle her in the meitai. Once in the store, departments are hit by priority and temperature. If there are diapers on the list, that's first, otherwise it's just a matter of getting through everything as fast as possible in hopes of finishing before anyone melts down. Then there's the "mommy moments" that I still haven't gotten over yet. According to my mother, my memory and better reasoning skills are never coming back. For example, yesterday I found myself standing in the popcorn aisle staring at two kinds of microwave popcorn and wondering which had less calories, the kettle corn 100 calorie mini bags or the buttery 100 calorie mini bags... Thoughts like this make shopping interesting to say the least. Then at some point Kyra will see Phil down an aisle usually (she's always looking for him at the store, even if he comes with us) and will spend the rest of the trip going "Dad? Dad! Dad, Dad, Dad.." until locating him again. Also, when shopping with two under two, at least, with OUR two under two, every third person in the store stops to chat. They ask how old the girls are, comment on how cute they are or, and this is my VERY favorite (sarcasm implied) say "Boy, you've really got your hands full!!" As if I didn't know. Kyra's newest shopping trick is to wait until someone who's had the audacity to pass by us without stopping to wave or comment and then suddenly SHOUT at the top of her lungs, just to see them jump. So once we've finally knocked out all the room temperature groceries on our list and gotten the last of the cold items in the cart, there are usually one or two things I'll notice we've forgotten and have to run back for as fast as possible while Kyra is turning around and banging on whatever frozen items she can reach and thereby thawing them out that much faster. By that time Phil is almost always off work (since we never make it to the store as early as we're hoping) and he entertains Kyra while we finish up and check out. Checking out usually takes a while too because the cashier feels compelled to visit with Kyra, ask how old the girls are and of course let us know that "You guys really have yoru hands full!" Once we have made it back out to where the car is, I unload and strap in the girls, starting with whoever is the LEAST cranky (they were both actually pretty good yesterday) while Phil gets the groceries in. At home, I UNload the girls while he starts bringing in the stuff and then I work on getting the frozen stuff put away first and then the cold stuff while the girls fuss and then hand Kyra a snack and a drink in her superyard before grabbing the baby to feed. I'm lucky if I get the room temp. stuff put away by bedtime and about the time the last things are in the cupboard is when I'll realize that I've forgotten at least ONE thing that was on the list. Yesterday it was potatoes. Guess we won't be having potatoes again until NEXT week. :)

Both Ends of the Chart

The girls both had appointments with Dr. Byrne (their PCP) today. Kyra's was a 15 month well-check to check on how her weight/growth rate was doing and she had a couple vaccines due since she's on a little more spread out than normal vaccine schedule. She weighed 20lbs 4oz, is now 30 inches tall and has an 18 inch head which puts her between the 5th and 10th percentile for weight (back up in the "normal" range) and between 25th and 50th for the other two. Paige weighs 11lbs 7oz (exactly two lbs more than at birth but she did have a SLIGHTLY wet diaper so we'll see what they say about weight at her appt. tomorrow), is 22 inches long and has a 15 inch head which puts her at about the 95th percentile for weight, between 50th and 75th for length and right smack dab at 50 for her headsize. I just find it funny that one of our girls is just barely hanging on at the bottom of the normal range on the weight chart and the other is almost falling off the top! They did both have very nice, healthy looking growth curves today though. :) Dr. Byrne is still feeling a small click in Paige's hip so she'll be having an ultrasound for that and at the same time they'll check her renal system as renal problems are sometimes associated with aural microtia (the official diagnosis on her ear.) She is also now officially referred to go see a geneticist regarding possible causes/complications related to the microtia and to see the ENT that the pediatric audiologist suggested who will also want to schedule her for a CT scan on her ear. Once you add in to that the early childhood intervention appointment we're waiting on a call about and her regular well-baby/vaccine appointments, that poor girl is going to be booked up for months to come!

One Month?!?! Already?!?!?

It's just so hard to believe that Paige is already a month old!!! The time is going by even faster than it did with Kyra and I wouldn't have thought that was possible! Paige is just such a wonderful baby. She's so mellow and content, she nurses well and doesn't have tummy trouble and she's a pretty good sleeper for only being a month old! She's already changed so much and is getting bigger every day! If she doesn't slow down she's going to catch her sister pretty soon! We had her first "birthday" cake tonight and Kyra helped me "sing" Happy Birthday to her.

Bye Bye Grandma!!!

We've spent the last few days playing and snuggling with Grandma while she's still here, taking walks and doing some shopping. We are really going to miss having Grandma here to visit and play with us every day and not just because she was helping with housework either!!! I'm sure after two weeks of grandparents to play with Kyra's going to think old Mama is pretty boring for a while. We took Mom down to get settled in at the hotel by the airport with the shuttle tonight and ate Chinese takeout down there. Kyra was quite entertaining, especially when Phil filled up the in room Jacuzzi to try to soak out his sore muscles since the hottub downstairs the jets weren't working. When he turned on the jets while she was standing by the tub she yelled and ran over to Grandma, then went back, yelled more quietly, ran more slowly over to Grandma and repeated that about four times before she totally calmed down. She loved the big floor length mirrors in the room and was enjoying watching herself in them and she took the phone off the hook at one point but was TRYING to put it back on when I got over there to take it form her (I think it was the first time she'd ever seen a corded phone). Both girls got in a few last snuggles with Grandma before it was time for us to head home. October when we'll see the grandparents agian sure seems like a long way off, but I'm sure the time will FLY by as busy as we'll be keeping up with these two precious girls!

Playball!!!

Today after church was Phil's first softball game of the season. It was a 2:00p.m. game which was quite a feat to get to with both girls since it was an ushering week for Phil and that meant leaving church around one or a little after to make it there for the 2:00p.m. game. We packed a picnic lunch but Kyra ate mostly crackers. Two of Kyra's little friends from church were there with their mom watching their Dad play and the older one who is 4 was over tickling Kyra. My mom commented on what a good baby tickler was and she replied "I am!". She should be since her sister is just about Kyra's age. :) Her mom called her back over to eat her lunch and her answer was "But she (meaning Kyra) LIKES me!" What that had to do with lunch I don't know but who's to question the logic of a little girl? I was amazed that, after a bit of fussing, Kyra actually took a nap in the stroller!!! Not a long one, but this is a girl who hasn't napped while we were out other than in her carseat while the car was in motion since she was about 7 months old! Hopefully this bodes well for all day outings in the future. The game went GREAT other than it making for a little bit of a hectic day trying to do late service and then the game right away (we'll either do early service or saturday night service before the rest of the 2:00p.m. games I think so it's easier to get lunch in.) They WON!!! The first game of the season! They were up by quite a bit after the first few innings (held the other team to 0 for three innings or so I think) and then ended up down by a couple and came back to win! How fun is that? Kyra loved watching the game and clapped quite enthusiastically whenever anyone clapped (including the other team) and sometimes when no one else was clapping (like when her dad was right in front of her at first base.... base coaching. Paige was less enthralled but content all the same.

All Tuckered Out

The girls' Aunt Jackie (this would be my dad's sister Jackie who sews, not Phil's mom's sister Jackie who also sews) sent Paige an adorable quilt and it came in the mail today! It has pretty pinwheels and her name on it (even spelled correctly mind you). Dad left early this morning so it was just the girls, grandma and I today. See the sad pouty look on Paige's face? I think she was missing her Papa. Or it could be because Mama was taking her picture in the swing instead of picking her up... Kyra was just STARVING today and kept asking for snacks besides eating quite a bit at her meals! What I wouldn't give to have a metabolism like hers! She did have a couple of nasty little tumbles today and her left ear has a bright red mark acrossed it. I'll be so glad when her feet are a little more coordinated and her body catches up with the size of her head somewhat so she's not so likely to take so many falls! Kyra got so tired after playing with her Grandma this afternoon and "helping" us organize the nursery that even after taking an extra nap she fell asleep on the floor before her bath! Poor tired little thing was out of it all the way through her bathtime but apparently it was a power nap that she took because once she got her new cute flannel nightie on (thanks Auntie Heather!) she was running all over the house so fast I could barely get a picture of her in it! She was so cute grabbing it and lifting it up by her knees and swirling it around. :)