Our Week

Another busy week means more pictures of cute babies in cute outfits!  :)  It rained half the week, so we only got to go the park and out for frozen yogurt once on Tuesday.  But the girls and I went shopping over a couple days to get clothes for them and me and that is always fun!

Besides dressing up and running errands, I have been struggling with Danielle's naps, or lack thereof.  She goes down SO easily at bedtime.  I can put her in bed awake and she quietly falls asleep within 10 minutes or so - sometimes less.  But that is the ONLY time I can do that.  When she wakes up in the middle of the night, I usually have to nurse her back down and the same goes for nap time.  If I try to just leave her in bed she cries and fusses until I come get her.  I hate to make her cry it out.  It is very frustrating since I know she knows how to put herself to sleep -- she does it nightly!  The main issue now is how LONG it takes to get her down for a nap.  I used to only have to nurse her about 15 minutes, she'd fall asleep and I'd gently lay her in her crib.  But now, she wakes up and cries as soon as she hits the crib.  We have to go through the whole process 3-4 times and sometimes it takes me over an hour to get her down and sometimes the 5 minutes she was asleep while nursing was cat nap enough and I don't get her down at all.  It is so frustrating and it is taking up my whole day. I really hope this phase ends soon.  The good thing is that even on days when she only naps 20 minutes all day (as she did on Wednesday!  From 10am to 10:20, then I tried at 12:30 and 4:00 and she wouldn't go down) she is still happy and not really fussy.  So it is nice to know that she can miss naps and doesn't need as much sleep so I can take Lily on impromptu playdates and out for ice cream after school and I am not tied down by Danielle's nap schedule.  But she never got the memo that babies sleep all the time and nap all day.  She has been like this since birth.

It also looks like Danielle has some tooth buds and teeth will be here soon.  Both the middle bottom ones look like they are starting to come in.  And Lily who has been saying for months that she has a loose tooth -- she is obsessed and wants to lose teeth, may actually have a loose tooth!  She has been saying that her top tooth is "wiggly" for sometime now, and it never has been.   But when she made me feel it the other day, it was a little wiggly!!  So I have to wonder if it is actually time for her to lose teeth or if she loosened it herself by playing with it constantly.  My babies are growing up WAY too fast!!

 

 Sadly, it looks like it may be time to retire this size 3 month outfit.  It's getting a little tight.

 I love this dress I bought for Lily and we finally found a hairstyle that works well for growing out her bangs, so I had to get a picture of Lily this week too!

This pose is ALL Lily -- ironically the dress is from Gwen Stefani's Harajuku collection, so maybe that inspired Lily to pose like a Japanese tourist?!?

 All ready for the park!

 Let's go to Lily's dance class!

 The perfect outfit for a rainy shopping day!

 I love that little jacket.

 A casual cozy outfit.

I LOVE my little dolls!

Danielle's First Playdate

On Thursday at the park, we got the blanket out and let the babies play.  Danielle and Abby see each other constantly and have spent a lot of time around each other, but this was the first time where Danielle really seemed to be aware of Abigail and they kinda played together -- well, played with the same toys at least.

Abby is 8 months older than Dani, so that is a big difference now, but as they grow up that gap should even out some and there is a good chance they will be in preschool together (it just depends on if I hold Danielle back or not since her birthday is only 2 weeks from the cut-off).

Dressing Up for a Busy Week!

When Lily was a baby,  a majority of the pictures I took of her were to remember the outfits that she was so quickly outgrowing.  I've tried to do that with Danielle as well, but I think I have been in denial that she will ever outgrow her baby clothes (it helps that she can still fit into her size 3 months).  But this week, we happened to be busy every day -- not just errands where I'd leave her in her pajamas, but playdates and fun stuff so I got her dressed up everyday and actually remembered to take pictures!  

On Monday before the class social:

 

Tuesday after school we met Abby, Matthew, Carys and Rhiannon at the park:

On Wednesday morning, I found bunny slippers that Grandma Sheryl had given to Lily when she was a baby.  They fit perfectly and actually stayed on all day.  It worked out great with pajamas that didn't have feet . ..  plus they are SO cute:

Wednesday afternoon we took Lily to dance:

I LOVE this dress and hats are always cute!

Plus the dress is tasty too.

Thursday we met up with Abby, Carys, Matthew and Rhiannon at the park again after school and went out for frozen yogurt after:

On Friday we had another park playdate after school (YAY for Spring weather!) and Lily and Danielle wore their matching outfits!  Lily has asked me repeatedly to buy them matching clothes, but it is getting harder and harder since Lily isn't in the baby girl clothes sizes anymore -- they usually go up to about 5T, and since Lily is bigger for her age, she is sometimes in a 5, sometimes in a 6.  Plus, it is not really my thing to dress them alike all the time.  But I did get them this one outfit and Lily was SO excited:

Aw, kisses from Britney.  

Danielle is very aware and very excited about the cats lately.  She likes to pet them as they walk by and will try to roll over to see them. 

I was just playing around and stuck that clip on her curl.  But it is kinda cute! :)

Class Social

On Monday after school Lily had a class social at Pizza Planet.  It was like Chuck-E-Cheese, but with less games and more rides.  The kids LOVED it.  

Riding the bumper cars with Makayla.

On the Pirate Ship ride, which was a little loud at first -- that is why they are all covering their ears.

There was even a little roller coaster!

On The Move!

Danielle isn't crawling yet, but that isn't stopping her from getting from one side of the room to another.   I just put her down and see where she ends up -- it is fun both both of us.  She enjoys rolling around and exploring the room while stopping to play with toys along the way and I enjoy watching her get around (although, I am not in a huge hurry to become any more mobile).

She started out sitting in her boppy and ended up over there!

She'll go as far as we let her and try to get into everything she can.  She'll start out facing north and end up facing south.  She is very competent at getting where she needs to go.  It is only a matter of time now before she is officially crawling. 

Our Week and a Sippy Cup!

We had a very busy and fun week!  Lily started "Stay and Play" at school which means on Tuesday and Thursday she brings a lunch and stays until 2pm (instead of 11:15)!!  She has been asking all year to be put in stay and play, but I liked having her home with us.  I know she'll be gone all day in Kindergarten and I was trying to keep her with me as much as possible.  But lately, it was becoming obvious that maybe that was not fair to her.  She is often bored at home and while I would LOVE to just play with her 24/7, I do have other responsibilities.  It has always been that way and I have always tried to encourage her to play independently for at least an hour a day, Btu I think she notices it more now that Danielle is here.  So, I agreed to let her play longer at school.  She is SO excited.  Matthew and Carys are in stay and play with her and she has been having a blast.  I have to admit, I liked the extra time too to get work done and get Danielle down for a couple of naps.  It may work out best for everyone -- and when she does come home I'll have more time to devote to her.

 

On Thursday after stay and play we met up with Carys, Matthew and Logan at the park and then went out for ice cream!  The weather has been beautiful - in the 70s - and looks to continue that way on and off, so hopefully we can have more days like this.  Lily told me for the next two days that I was "the best mommy ever!"  She really misses the old schedule with playgroups and extracurricular activities.  But with school everyday and babies nap schedule (not just ours, her bffs have babies too), it's not as easy to find the time to play.  Hopefully we can change that.  On Saturday we had a girl's lunch outing with Carys and Rhiannon at the Cheesecake Factory.   It was fun and Danielle ate mushed bananas off the baby plate!  She is growing up too fast!!  After lunch we all went to Emily's house to play.  It was an impromptu play-date, but it was perfect.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures either day of Lily, but I did get this one of Danielle all bundled up.  It was 60-some degrees outside, but it was windy.  The kids were playing outside in the bounce house at Emily's and Danielle seemed cold.  So Patti got her a hat and Rhiannon got her Abby's jacket out of the car, and we bundled her up.  It worked great since she took a nap outside in her carseat while the kids played. . . .  and she looked SO cute all warm and cozy!

I think that Lily is really appreciating the extra play time.  She has been SO good lately.  She has been polite and kind to me (not that she wasn't before, just not all the time).  She is cleaning up without being asked and trying to help out around the house.  On Friday I wasn't feeling very well and she was trying so hard to take care of me.  She asked, "Do little girls have milk in their boobs?"  When I told her no, why?  She said "because I wanted to feed Dani and put her to bed to help you out."  It was so sweet, it melted my heart.   Lily has always been a VERY caring and sweet girl, but she is also VERY stubborn and has to have her way, so we often bump heads.  But she has been perfect lately and we are all enjoying the peace and harmony -- I hope it keeps up!!

At Danielle's doctor's appointment on Tuesday he said I could start giving her water in a sippy if I wanted to, but there was no rush.  I really don't care if she takes it right away, but I was trying to keep her entertained at the table while we ate dinner, so I gave her some water.  I don't think she got any of it, but it was a good way to get familiar with the sippy.

It's Learning Time!

I had to take this picture the other morning because Danielle just looked so cute and little sitting there playing.  It is crazy sometimes to stop, slow and down and think -- there's a baby in the house!  :)

I'm trying to teach her some new words.  I remember Lily could point out nearly all the things in this book before her first birthday.  We still have a lot of time to work on it, but it is never too early and she likes to look at the pictures -- especially the ones of the babies and animals.