My Girls

Nap-time struggles, deliberate disobedience, and temper tantrums aside, I have been really enjoying our 2 year olds lately. They are so sweet and cute and funny, and never cease to amaze me, the little smarties.

Anna is our crazy silly girl and makes us laugh with all her jokes (her new thing is pretending to eat anything you give/show her, including animals, bugs, and Alden). Kara is a little more reserved and thoughtful - she has a great memory (Anna does too) and is a bit more concerned with others' feelings, wanting to do whatever it takes to make everyone happy.

They're both speaking really well in complete sentences lately (still working on verb tense, word order, and making sure all connecting words are there), but Kara especially - you can see her little brain working as she puts the words together- she thinks it's so funny when I tell her "great sentence." The best part is hearing them say things they're thinking that I wouldn't expect. A couple recent episodes stand out. Last weekend we went out to eat for their birthday (kids eat free at CPK during their birth month) and we got chocolate milk - I asked Anna if her milk was too chocolatey, and she told me "a little bit." One day this week we were looking for a missing toy, and when I found it Kara told me "great job Mommy." She then added to her sentence and repeated over and over "great job find baby seahorse mommy under chair."

Their interaction with each other mainly consists of sharing when someone is upset, telling each other what to do ("be careful!" is heard often), and fighting over toys. This fighting now includes verbal reasoning, telling each other that they had the toy first, therefore should get it ("no Kara first ___" vs. "no Anna first ___"). They also say "Anna turn 3 minutes" or "Kara turn 3 minutes" - my mom introduced us all to the great idea of taking timed turns with toys they both want...it generally works very well, but they are adamant about whose turn is first.

When my mom was here...my pretty ballerinas. I hope they'll like ballet when they get older - at this point I can see Kara being a little more willing to concentrate and enjoy it and Anna wanting to do something more active.

Just a little snippet. Most of these are from before we went to the Garden a couple weeks ago.

Birthday Princesses

Kara and Anna turned 2 on the 13th - I feel like they've been acting like 2 year olds for some time now, so I've kind of considered them 2 for a while. Unfortunately, they acted out all of the negative 2 year old traits on their birthday, so we didn't have a great day, and waited until last weekend to celebrate fully. Here are some pictures from the actual day, before things turned ugly (parenting 2 tantruming and deliberately disobedient girls is certainly the challenge before me this next year!)

My mom was still in town and got them these fun princess crowns - they were so happy to wear them as soon as they got up. My birthday princesses.

Their birth minute pictures (see last year's posts here and here) - Kara at 8:48 and Anna at 8:57. This year they were enjoying some time dusting. :)

Headed to the playground/park (it was all downhill as soon as we left). Happy birthday sweet girls!

This Guy

Given that he looks like this lately (from this past Sunday), when I took him in for his 2 week check up (at 3 weeks and 1 day - oops), I expected him to have gained significantly from the 8 lbs 14 oz he weighed when we went in 2 1/2 weeks ago (the Monday after he was born). A little shocked to find out that he weighs exactly TWELVE pounds. Yikes. I know you can never overfeed a breastfed baby, but suffice to say we will no longer be waking him up to eat during the night. He also grew an inch in that time (he's now 22 3/4), so is about 97th percentile in weight and length. While I can't imagine he'll stay on this track with a dad who's 5' 8 1/2" at best, it is such a blessing to not have to worry about his growth and gain (or my milk supply) like we did with the girls! We love our big boy.

Here's a more flattering picture from last Friday (he is still SO hot; he sweats a ton if he's even wearing just a onesie, hence the usual nudity). In my very biased opinion, he's such a cutie pie!

A Memory, A Series, and a Favorite

Yesterday when I was trying to get them wrangled to go eat lunch I asked what they wanted to eat. Anna told me "cake." Instead of saying no, I asked where there was cake, and her response: "heaven." (Not atypical - they do like to tell me they have 5 daddies/3 mommies and the other ones are in heaven with Jesus and God). She (Kara soon followed) then proceeded to reach up to the ceiling and say "too far away" and "no reach" and "too high up sky" over and over, getting frustrated she couldn't reach it. Apparently there is cake in heaven for this 2 year old, along with the angels ("ozikis" somehow), Jesus and God.

Sitting in the pantry and purposely not posing for me...

Kara smiles, finally.

Anna decides she'd rather initiate tongues all around - why would she listen to one of my requests? ;)

And lastly, my new favorite thing about the girls (NOT the incessant quest to find and smash bugs when we're outside, or to pick up dead ones) is their use of adjectives/adverbs. "too" is common, such as "Anna come too/Kara come too," in addition to its use as a descriptor e.g. "too heavy" "too many," etc. "very" is used in the same way. "almost" is newly popular ("almost, almost, almost, did it!" is fun for them). Today at lunch everyone was crying at the same time for some reason or another and Anna was crying for Daddy. I told them, yes, it was hard without daddy home. I asked if we liked it when it was hard and Kara told me, "no, soft." Haha. Adjectives and opposites - these are the joys of my days these days. :)

My Children Are Amazing

Before our first family outing last Saturday - to the Science Center and Turtle Park. 1.5 week old Alden did not cramp our Saturday morning outing style!

Also amazingly strong-willed and frustrating at times, as was true this week. After a good first week, the girls had some sleeping issues this past week with Alden home (I think related to realizing that Alden's staying and they can no longer get as much attention during normal waking hours) and we have not been getting much sleep at all. Alden sleeps wonderfully, at least! I'm kinda in a sleep-deprived daze and can barely keep up with feeding my children and picking up a little, let alone doing any of the other million things I have to do around the house or blogging - so more on the girls' 2nd birthday and Alden's 2nd week will have to come later.

For now, I just wanted to record a few moments today that enabled me to look past the rough week and to feel truly blessed by my children - before I forget them!

Alden continues to be a sweetie, as long as his never-satisfied belly is full (he does not hesitate to nurse voraciously every hour if necessary). Today my sweet boy gave me 3 of the most precious smiles while he was awake on my lap with the girls napping. I love my one-on-one time with him. He's starting to interact more and has been holding onto my shirt, grabbing at my face, etc. - the last smile was after he had reached up near my face and I kissed his hand. I could not ask for a better baby.

Kara and Anna continue to amaze me with how smart they are. They learn so quickly and are talking so well - they are starting to be able to express themselves a lot better, too - though Kara earlier this week telling me that I shouldn't hold Alden, I should hold her made me cry... They've been counting up to 5 for a few weeks and I have been slowly trying to add 6 and 7. I've caught them counting to themselves up to 7, sometimes 8. Tonight at dinner Anna surprised us by randomly counting to 10, with no prompting. I had no idea she could do that! Even more amazing was that after she counted to 10, she counted to 11. (Of course when we shouted "eleven!" in amazement, she and Kara cracked each other up for the next 5 minutes yelling 1, 2, 3, 4, 11! back and forth). And Kara is no slouch either - I sang the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 song (from Sesame Street maybe?) and as soon as I finished, Kara said 13. I've never specifically taught them beyond 10 - hence the title of this post. Alternatively titled: Best Babies, Indeed.

My husband's not so bad, either. :)

Get Your Alden Fix

Kara always used to pose like this too.

What a chub face.

I think his face shape kinda looks like Anna's in this picture...but I'm not sure he really looks like either of the girls. Time will tell.

My nice sleeping men. And Alden's 1 week portrait - he was too curled up to really cooperate, but it was on a pillow, in the spirit of the pillow pictures of old. Then I realized he was on a different size pillow than the girls had been; oh well.

So, yes, take in cutie Alden in his first week of life - one full of sleeping, eating, contentedness, and loving sisters - he is the easiest baby I've ever seen, as long as his belly's full.

Tomorrow is all about these rambunctious girls...

Stoically wearing Brother's towel on their heads, of course.

Happy July 4th

Nana brought everyone patriotic outfits and some pinwheels and flags for the girls. It brought some fun to an otherwise rainy and gross day.

Kara loves hanging out in Alden's car seat. And her scrape came from a driveway mishap while I was in the hospital - the scab is gone and I'm hoping the big scar under her nose will fade soon.

After a wagon ride with Nana, what better than to sit on your sister? :)

Rain Coats

Grandma got us these rain coats and the girls have gone out a couple times now to splash in puddles and play in the rain - they love it! Dad took them and even let them pee in a puddle (a boy thing, I guess). In these pictures they preferred shrugging to posing, though. :)

Catching Up: First Afternoon at Home

After he woke up: "kiss Brother," "hug Brother," "hold Brother," "pat Brother," etc. That has continued, even though his newness has worn off. Letting them do any number of those things has worked well to incentivize them, though, and I can always use new tricks to help with that!

Anna's standing to better jump on top of him.

Kara also perched in prime jumping position...

Kara dropped Alden on her lap seconds after he started crying - it was hilarious. Anna took a different approach.

Catching Up: Alden's Homecoming

Not so happy...but looking cute in his little "going home" onesie - Andrew and I are not so big on "going home outfits." The girls like these animal onesies a lot, too.

Hanging out with Dad prior to departure.

I don't think that either of the girls were this composed in the car (let alone on their first trip) for months! Alden's personality so far is completely opposite of theirs. Post-arrival, my curly hairs spent a long time bothering Alden in his car seat, wanting to poke him, hug him, kiss him, and ultimately, just wanting him to be awake. He's such a good sleeper, though, that they just had to wait. I was happy that his sleeping allowed me some time with my girls, since we had definitely missed each other!

Catching Up: Best Big Sisters

Anna and Kara came and visited while I was in the beginning of labor for a bit, then came to see Alden several hours after he was born. They had skipped their nap, so by the time they got there they were fast asleep and took a good nap on my hospital bed. :) As they woke up they each explored "Brother" - they loved him as much as they had for months in my tummy (and wore their Big Sister shirts 2 days in a row to prove it).

Anna checking out Alden by herself while Kara slept...though she kept saying that Kara should wake up to meet Alden too.

Kara and Anna with Alden after Kara woke up. Lots and lots of kisses. Kara was especially enthralled by his "teeny toes," "teeny ears," "teeny eyes," "teeny nose," etc. etc.

More kisses. The first few days the girls were so enamored with Alden and so excited to see me that they just climbed all over and poked both of us - I was overwhelmed to the point of asking them to leave and not come back. It's calmed down some since then, thankfully, and I am not nearly as tired and in pain as I was at the hospital, so am able to deal with it better.