18 months!

My little ladies are morphing more and more each day from babies into little girls....
They had their 18 month check up this morning.
WOW.
18 months.
The last 6 months have literally flown by. They are growing SO fast! They already insist on feeding themselves at every meal and are incredibly independent, but soon they will be chatting in full sentences and playing pretend. AHHH!

Here are their 18 month stats:
Miss Olivia - AKA Baby A -
Weight - 29 lbs 8.5 oz (95th percentile)
Length - 34.5 inches (99th percentile)
Clothing size - 24 month
Diaper size - 5

Miss Brianna - AKA Baby B -
Weight - 30 lbs 1 oz (95th percentile)
Length - 34.5 inches (99th percentile)
Clothing size - 24 month
Diaper size - 5

They are a couple of healthy little girls! Our pediatrician said that 1 in 10 three year olds are the same size as our girls are now. HA! No wonder people are surprised when we tell them that they are 18 months old! And he is in no way concerned about their size. They look great, and they are proportional, so no worries. We were thinking maybe he would suggest changing from Vitamin D milk to 2% due to their size, but no. He wants them to stay on the Vitamin D milk until they are 2. Okey dokey then!

So what are our little peanuts up to now? 

Eating
We are PICKY! We love food, but only certain foods. Our favorite foods right now include yogurt, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, peaches, bagels with cream cheese, Coco Puffs (mommy and daddy like Coco Puffs - the girls only get them as a snack occasionally), baked french fries (with ketchup!), and chocolate cake.
We are currently on strike with most vegetables, any meat that doesn't have some sort of sauce on it (such as BBQ sauce or cheese), and bread (strange, because they LOVED bread a month ago!).
We have transitioned to hard top sippy cups to reduce leaking, and the transition has gone well!


Sleeping
We are sleeping from about 9 PM - 7 AM at night. We are both in the same room now, in our cribs. It takes us a GOOD 30 minutes to fall asleep at night. We do a lot of flipping, flopping, and talking before we finally settle down.
Naps...oh naps...how the girls used to not fight you! So....the girls are still taking one nap in the afternoon. This used to be from about 12:30-3:30. Pretty consistent. Now it's more like, we put them down around 1...maybe they are asleep by 2, but maybe they aren't. About half of the time one of the girls has poo-d and we need to go in and change a diaper before she will go to sleep. The other half of the time the girls are just being defiant and are refusing to sleep! Over the last 5 days the girls have slept from approximately 2:30-4 PM. UGH. Hoping this is just a stage!


Discipline
We hate sharing. Hate it. But we are getting better at it. If one girl has two books and the other would like one, sometimes (about 30% of the time I'd say) the one with both books will give one to the other. We of course praise this like crazy! Most of the time though it turns into a hitting match. Hitting is one thing that is not well tolerated in our home and is a time out offense. The girls get frustrated when they don't get their way or when they can't get their point across, and their first response is often to hit the other person/pug/cat that happens to be close. Eek. We are working on it.
Time out for the girls consists of one minute in their crib, alone, with no one else in the room. When they are released from time out they are required to apologize and give a hug/kiss to the person/pug/cat they hit. It's working reasonably well...considering they are only 18 months old!


Vocabulary
The girls vocabulary is growing every day! Tonight Livvy just said "I love you" to Miss Jess before she left (ADORABLE), and this was the first time she clearly said it! Normal words in our vocabulary are: Mommy, Daddy, this, that, these, yes, no, thank you, hey/hi, yum, please, juice, out, hot, up, more...and a multitude of animal sounds (meow - cat, woof woof - dog, roar - bear, hoo hoo - owl, ooh ooh - monkey, moo moo - cow). That's all I can think of off the top of my head at 10:30 at night, although I am sure there are more! =)
They are trying more and more each day to communicate effectively with us. We are using a lot of signs. Our potty time DVD has helped a lot with that too. The girls now know "potty", "wash your hands", "wipe", "flush", "amazing", "drink", "eat", "water", and "body" all thanks to that one dvd! That adds onto the "milk", "more", "all done", "please", "thank you" and others that they already knew. Awesome! They still get very frustrated with us when we don't understand what they are saying, but it's a work in progress. For what it's worth, they almost always seem to understand each other! LOL!


Playtime
We are outside girls for sure! Our favorite things to do are often done outside and we will NEVER turn down an offer to go outside! While we are out we love to go see Aunt Denise's fish, play in the sandbox, go down the slide, go for walks and collect treasures (pine cones, sticks, rocks, etc.) along the way, sit in the grass and look at the trees, pick dandelions, touch the tops of the pretty flowers, and watch mom and Aunt Denise blow bubbles.

When we are inside, we LOVE books. LOVE. They love to read and be read to. They love to play with blocks, and play in the ball pit. They also love impromptu baths =). They think that making cookies is great fun, and they love any activity which allows them to stir =).

So that's the girls, the 18 month version! My little babies are growing up!  I love watching them learn and explore and grow, but I miss those baby stages too! So bittersweet!
I love you so much my little ladies!!!

Until next time -
Megan

32 weeks!

This pregnancy is seriously flying by! I am 32 weeks already. WOW!
Here's a picture of me now....

And of course a comparison picture of me with the girls... I was WAY bigger....naturally....

My biggest accomplishment at this point???

I CAN STILL SEE MY TOES!

I love it!

We had an OB appointment last week. Little man is weighing in at 3 lbs 11 oz....right on target to be an 8.5 lb baby if he makes it to 40 weeks. Holy buckets! The girls were 6 weeks old before they weighed that much!

Right now he is totally breech - his head is on the right side of my belly, his booty is on the left side of my belly, and his feet are jumping up and down on my bladder. My OB said that he should turn and get into birthing position by 36 weeks. If he doesn't, he will try to manually turn him. If that is not successful, at that point he will recommend a C-section. If he is in position (before or after manual turning) then I will be allowed to try a VBAC. YAY! I would love to not have the recovery icky-ness of another C-section when I already have twin toddlers at home. Fingers crossed!

I am finally starting to have some decent swelling with this pregnancy (not that I missed it AT ALL), and as of yesterday I was no longer able to wear my wedding ring. Sad day =(. I am also starting to retain water in my legs - at least one pair of work pants no longer fit because they are too tight - and my shoes are leaving decent marks in my feet after being worn for a while. I will be paying more attention to my blood pressure now, but for the time being, I continue to have no major problems or issues to report. YAY!

Oh! And we finally got a decent 3D/4D pic of little man during an ultrasound a couple weeks back - check him out!! His hand is in front of his face, which prevents it from being an awesome u/s picture, but it's still better than anything we were able to get with the girls! I think he looks like his big sister Olivia, which according to about 75% of those who make comments to us, means that he will likely look like his daddy =). So sweet!

And one with arrows (from Si) just in case you can't tell what body parts you are looking at in the picture =). Thanks hun!

Okay, that's my baby update of the day (or month, or week)! Happy Tuesday all!!

Until next time -
Megan

Our first flower girl experience!

What a BUSY fun-filled weekend!

I still have Easter Egg hunt photos to post and an 18 month post to write, but, while last night is still fresh in my head, I decided to skip the other two posts and go straight to the wedding/flower girl post!

Our good friends Matt and Jess tied the knot last night. It was a beautiful ceremony; well planned, beautifully decorated, tons of attention to detail... beautiful. I was one of five bridesmaids, and the girlies were the flower girls. She had twin little two year old boys as the ring bearers as well, and she even incorporated her pugs into the wedding ceremony! It was SO stinking cute!

I could be a bit biased, but I think the girls did an amazing job. They did so much better than I expected. We all decided that it would be best for Si to walk the girls up the aisle, as opposed to the girls being expected to walk up on their own, simply due to their young age. It couldn't have worked out better! The girls each held one of their daddy's hands and proudly walked up the aisle, like they'd done it a thousand times before (they hadn't - they practiced twice at rehearsal the night before is all). As I was a bridesmaid I was already on the elevated stage and got a perfect view of the whole performance. SO cute. SO CUTE. =)

The photographer for the wedding is the photographer that took all of the girls pictures their first year of life, so I am positive that she got some great shots of the girls that I can show you all later on. She even took one of us as a family (AWESOME), so I am hoping to have a new blog header pic in the next couple of weeks too! Sweet!

Anyhow, in the meantime, here are a couple of pictures that I snapped (or Si snapped) before the wedding got started (it was very expressly stated in the program that there were to be no photos taken during the ceremony - so for the time being, this is what I've got!). Enjoy!!

Mommy and her girls =)

Daddy and Livvy =)

Mommy and Miss Olivia =)

Aunt Denise and Miss Bri (she insisted that Aunt Denise hold her nearly the entire time before the wedding started! I bet her arms were tired!!!)

Okay, and how stinking adorable is this?! This is Olivia and one of the ring bearers (Maddux I believe)...LOVE IT!

A picture of my bouquet (can't just have cute kid pics on this blog - need flowers too! HA!)

Another pic of the girls, running laps in the hallway (with their blankets) before the ceremony got started =)

CONGRATULATIONS Matt and Jess!!!! We love you guys and are SO happy for you!!! Jess, you looked absolutely breathtaking in your gown, and Matt looked amazing all dressed up in his tux. We were so honored to be part of your special day! I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Have a great rest of your weekend ladies!

Until next time -
Megan

A successful transition!

Our girls are so different. SO different. And they've been this way from the beginning!

When we brought them home from the hospital at a mere 8 days old we quickly learned that we couldn't put both girls in the same Pack N Play or crib to sleep. Nope. Livvy was a talker. She would wake up not only Bri with her "talking", but Mommy and Daddy too. And we needed sleep. NEEDED sleep. We couldn't have a "talker" messing with the sleep schedule in our household! No sir!!

Si's mom (who was staying with us at the time) made it her mission to work with Livvy and very quickly got her situated and used to sleeping in her crib. This could either be the crib in her room (while we were sleeping downstairs on the couch for the first 7 weeks of the girls life), or in the crib upstairs in our room (once I could actually lay flat to sleep in my own bed).

Bri was a reflux baby and had to sleep at an angle. Most nights for the first 6 months of her life she slept in her little lamb cuddle swing. We had two of these swings. We LOVED them.

One of the swings usually traveled up and down the stairs each day with Bri. At night, the swing was in our bedroom, running, at the bottom of our bed. In the morning the swing was carried back downstairs and the girls would nap in their swings.

Please don't judge me! =). We did what we had to do to get some peace, and the girls to sleep. They loved napping in their swings, so that's what we let them do. They turned out just fine!

Once we transitioned Brianna out of her swing at around 6 months, she went into the bassinet portion of the Pack N Play beside our bed. I was still nursing the girls, so if/when they would wake up first thing in the morning (sometimes around 5-6 AM) I would nurse them, and put them back down, and they would sleep until 7-7:30.

At about 8 months Livvy moved downstairs into her room (the nursery) to sleep at night. YAY!

At about 10 months miss Bri followed suit and was moved downstairs.
BUT, not into her crib. Oh no. Not Brianna. She wanted NOTHING to do with her crib. She wanted to sleep in her Pack N Play. And NOT in the same room as her sister. Oh no, she wanted her own space.
So we gave in.
She got to sleep in her Pack N Play in the spare bedroom.
She'd been there ever since.

Fast forward to the beginning of March. I started talking to Bri about sharing a room with Livvy. She was very excited at the prospect of getting to sleep in her "real" crib in the same room as her sister. We talked about it several times a week for several weeks.

Last weekend we decided it was time to take the plunge.

The first night was ROUGH.
After bath time, we put the girls into their cribs (real cribs) in the same room.
Lots of tears.
Bri FREAKED out.
She didn't know where she was in the dark.
This wasn't her Pack N Play.
Oh but wait....I hear my sister...she's crying too!
Wait...my sister is here with me?
Sister?????
Que talking and whining for about 20 minutes.
Finally it was quiet. We were guessing they went to sleep.

They got up an hour early the next day. Oye.
Nap time was even worse.
Tears, followed by standing up in their cribs, chatting, giggling, and jumping on their mattresses.
After 30 minutes they finally laid down and slept for an hour.
AN HOUR.
These girls normally sleep for 2.5-3.5 hours in the afternoons.
They had gotten up an hour earlier than usual AND had only taken a fraction of the nap that they normally take.
They were fussy.
We were frazzled.

When we put them down for bed that night they cried for about 30 seconds, talked for 5 minutes, then went to right to sleep.
Since then they have had NO issues.
Sure, occassionally they would chat for a couple minutes before going to sleep, but then they would SLEEP. And sleep well!

Now they love sharing a room!
They love seeing each other first thing when they wake up.
They love knowing that their sister, their best friend, is right there in the same room with them.

Our transition is complete. We survived! And it was a success! I'm so glad!!!

Now to tackle the potty training....
T-9 weeks and counting....

Until next time -
Megan

A potty training update....

We haven't really been working hard core on potty training...

We bought two potty chairs.
We bought lots of pull up diapers.
We should have bought stock purchased about 12 pairs of Baby Legs to use when potty training while it was still cold outside (note that it is no longer cold outside).

So what's the hold up???

The girls didn't seem interested.
Okay, and well, potty training seemed like a HUGE undertaking to me. HUGE. The girls were (and still are!) young. We both work during the week, and we are busy every single weekend for the next 6, then we only have 3 weekends until little man arrives, so I just figured we wouldn't have the free time necessary to potty train two little ladies right now.

To make myself feel like I was still helping the girls get ready to potty train (and not hinder them any more than I possibly already have - LOL) I bought a Potty Time video off of Babysteals.com two weeks ago. I was interested in seeing if the girls would even watch it.

The girls don't watch TV. They don't have any interest. I was giving them small doses of Sesame Street, and they could make it maybe 5-10 minutes, then they were done. It's probably a good thing really, but I figured that something must be wrong. Who doesn't like Sesame Street after all?! So...I thought I'd go ahead and give the Potty Time video a try. I didn't have anything but my $13.99 + tax to lose.

And?

THEY LOVE IT.

They sit there, mesmorized, staring at the TV and dancing to the music.

They've probably watched the DVD 15-20 times in the past 10 days or so. Note, that is more than once a day. They actually ask to watch it. Bri will bring me the DVD case and sign "please" and Livvy will point at the DVD player and grunt (and sign please) until you turn it on.

And you know what?

I think they might "get it".

Really.

Bri came up to me last night and "told" me that she needed to use the potty. Okay...so I take off her diaper and place her on the potty chair. She sits there contently for about 10 seconds, then gets up and RUNS into her room where she proceeds to pee on the rug.

Oye.

But progress!
I thought she would be the much more difficult of the two to train.

As for Miss Livvy, she told me twice last week that she had to use the potty right before bath time. Both times we took off her diaper and she sat there on the potty chair, probably for a good 30 seconds. Nothing happened. The second I stuck her in the tub, the water gates opened and she peed in the tub. AHHH!!!

We've got a long way to go obviously. But hey, at least they both knew that they had to go. And that's half the battle. Now getting them to go in the right place, and actually relax enough to let it happen...well, that's the other half of the battle I think!

But we are getting there! Go progress!!!!

Where are you guys at in your potty adventures? Have you had any successes yet? Lots of failures? Still waiting to give it a try?

As always I am open to advice and suggestions if you have any! So far what has worked for us is the low-pressure approach...let the girls come to us instead of us asking them 47x a day if they need to go. Not that we won't get there....but for now, this is working, and I like it!

Until next time -
Megan