Call it reality sinking in.

Where to begin?

First off, Emily is going to start going to PRESCHOOL!! so I will regain my mornings to blog. YAY! My internet works. YAY! and I have a fully functioning computer. YAY!

Excuses aside, I want to do this for my girls someday. I want to be able to go back and read about the crazy things Emily and Claire did and how I felt about them so that I can cry over how cute and sweet they used to be when they are 16 and 13 and making me NUTS.

I was on good ol' Facebook today and I stumbled across my status from a year ago today. Something like "OFFICIALLY felt Baby VP#2 squirming around today" I stopped and thought about the craziness of this for a second. A year ago today I didn't know that the Claire that I know today was growing inside of me. I didn't know if she was a boy or a girl. I didn't know her personality or her adorable smile or her cute chunky thighs. Oh, how much my heart has grown since that day a year ago! I didn't know if it was possible to love another baby as much as I was in love with my Emily. Everyone assured me it would be fine. I knew in my heart it would be. But to look at her now across the room in her bouncer smiling her big toothless smile with two dimples on each side and drool on her chin.... it actually tears me up a little to think of my life without her.

I LOVE my girls. Both of them! They both melt my heart in unexplainable ways. This is also proof to me that God knows be better than I know myself. I KNEW that I wanted all boys. I didn't want to have to deal with the girl hormones and the frills and the PINK. I HATED pink. Now when I do laundry there is so much pink that the lint in the trap turns pink. I LOVE IT. It makes me laugh every time.

Once a year

Once a year...around the fourth of July, I do this. I take a picture of Emily on the front lawn right before we watch fireworks. So, if you want, you can go back to when Emily was a little older than Claire and see her picture...or don't. It is sure to bring tears to your eyes!! I know I sobbed about it for a while. Here is this years picture. I also did one of just Emily and one of just Claire, but I love this one the most.

Test #1

Must document...

A few nights ago Claire rolled over, Is thought it was a fluke. Last night she rolled over again. It was inn the bed so I disregarded it. But today.... She is over every time I set her down. Although Im excited...I'm also not. This is not my first rodeo. I know well enough that this the first milestone to mobility and THAT scares...almost as much as the thought of "prom"

3 and 3/4

Today is a special day. (special enough for me to sneak next door and steal my in-laws internet so that I can make this post) Today BOTH of my girls are 3 and 3/4. Now...before you think I'm crazy because that is IMPOSSIBLE, let me explain. Emily, my munchy bug is 3 3/4 YEARS old. Claire, my sweet love bug, is 3 3/4 MONTHS old. Cool day, huh? I had to document it.

Someday when AT&T decides that they want to come fix my internet line I have a MILLION pictures to post. But I can only do one for now.

Wedding Pictures

First wedding back of the season and it's an associate wedding for A.Blake Photography. Talk about pressure. Glad I got the "first wedding" jitters out of the way. I needed to get my brain back in gear so that I can power out the rest of the season to the best of my abilities. What better place than The Cliffs Resort in Pismo Beach? It is beautiful there! Although The Cliffs and I have our history (not the people, but the actual place) and there has been some discussion as to whether I carry a Cliffs curse, I was excited to face my "fears" head on and get this first wedding out of the way. The best way to deal with fear is to face it head on right? I did just that and although The Cliffs tried to stir me up and take me down again, I (and my wonderful level headed assistant) prevailed and made it through the night with only a hiccup or two.

This all sounds so melodramatic but I'm not up for going in to details just yet. I also got to see the joys of being a working, exclusively breast feeding mom. Boy was that fun. Again, I will spare the gory details for you all.

This wedding was my milestone for the year. If I made it through this one, I would be confident I could make it through the rest. Wedding season 2011 here I come!

Click here to see more.

Easter

(yep...my babies end up bald :( 

Someday I will learn to keep on top of things!

We had an awesome Easter this year. Very relaxed. I can't always say that about the holidays in this family. I married in to a larger than life family on top of my side living 8 hours away...sometimes it can get a little hectic. This year we opted to say home (thanks to a gas prices and lack of money) and enjoy Easter at home.

Cute picture right... LOOK AT THE FINGERS! We ditched the wire 

dipper thing about 1 1/2 egg in to dying

She was over pictures

It was cold, and windy, Claire's dress wouldn't stop blowing up, she lost a 

sock and would cry if I took the binky out. sigh....

I think I'm going to restage them this weekend so that I get some good ones to remember...or is having bad ones whats fun about remembering?

Best I've got

Emily's Easter basket full of goodies

Straight to the candy...

Claire got a big stuffed bunny and some pretty purple and pink binkies. I don't have any pictures of her with them because...well...she wasn't having it and wanted to get out of the wind. Poor baby... Can you believe she will be over a year old and walking the next time she does this? I can't...

Big Girl!

Oh my little Claire...

I decided to get on here and document the fact that Claire is attempting to roll over! I don't know how much longer it will be before she actually gets it down. When I put her on her back and dangle something above her head she will arch her back, turn on her side, and kick her leg over so that her tummy is on the floor. All she needs to do is figure out how to get her arm around and she will have it.

This is rediculous! For those of you who don't know (I was one of them and I've had a child of my own already!)  4-5 months is the "average" development age for babies to be able to go from back to side or from belly to back. Claire kicked herself over from belly to back at about 3 weeks (and does it regularly now during "tummy time") On the other hand SIX MONTHS is when it is the norm to see a baby go from back to belly. SIX MONTHS?!?! Claire is 11 weeks and 2 days...only a few days shy of 3 months.

I can't deal with this. I'm going to go drown myself in birth pictures of Claire and wonder where the time went!

No comparison

My original plan here was to post a picture of Emily when she was about Claires age and see how much they look alike. The fact of the matter is that they don't! At least not at 3 months. Poor little Emily was tiny!! She stayed in newborn clothes well past Halloween (and she was born in August) Claire on the other hand is pushing being put in 6 months clothes at almost 3 months old!

So instead I dug up a picture of Emily at about 8 months old when she finally chunked up to about what Claire is now. I see a resemblance BUT they aren't going to be identical.

Some Claire Therapy

I feel like I'm neglecting my littlest bug so here's some updates on her.

Claire is still amazing. At her 2 month appointment she was 12lb 4oz and 23 inches long. That is 95th percentile for weight and "off the charts" for height. Her head circumference was only in the 75h percentile. That is much smaller than her watermelon headed sister that is still 'off the charts' in head size.

Claire is a G.E.R.D. baby. Click on 'G.E.R.D.' for an explanation, but basically it's chronic heart burn/ acid reflux. After some great advice from my friend, who also had a gerdy baby, I decided to tell the doctor about all the symptoms she was having. He agreed that it sounded like that was the problem and told me to give Claire some Mylanta before each feeding. It worked! I called in and he prescribed her some medicine specifically for babies with gerd. Claire, who I thought was easy going and perfect before, is now the most happy and content baby known to man. No joke. The only time she cries now is when I try to give her the medicine, but I've quickly learned that if I sneak it in to a bottle of pumped milk she is none the wiser.

Interesting fact: There is a known link between polyhydramnios (my excess water during pregnancy) and babies with gerd! Because the babies muscle between the stomach and the esophagus will relax and allow the swallowed amniotic fluid to come back up, it can create a build up of amniotic fluid in my uterus. That is comforting to know...NOW.

Lastly...Claire has a cold. {sigh} I took her in last week (where she weighed in at a whopping 12lb 12 oz.) The doctor pretty much told me that they want the babies, especially the newborns, to fight the cold themselves. Then, if they start to get a fever or are sick for a rediculously long time, they will prescribe some antibiotics. So for now we just ride it out. Again, Claire is such an easy going baby that it hasn't seemed to change her disposition in the slightest bit...except for when I'm forced to pull out the blue booger sucking squishy thing of death. THEN she gets mad.

Oh! and developmentally: When I put her on her stomach for "tummy time" she can roll from belly to back AND can push her chest and head up off the ground by putting weight on her elbows. Amazing! I know.

Here are a few pictures:

 I'm not sure what this look is...and she doesn't do it often but it makes me giggle so I'm including it!

and.....shes over it.

Outdoor Girl

As I stated in one of my previous posts today, Emily LOVES to be outside. I'm not sure if it's appropriate to post naked pictures of my daughter on here. When is the cut off age for cute naked baby butt and small child nudity? I'm not sure so we will keep this post as clean as possible so I don't have people knocking on my door.

I think the picture pretty much explains it's self:

Just call me "Farmer BlackThumb"

So I know that's an oxymoron, but in my case, it works.

Let me give you a little background: I'm sure I've already covered this so I will make it short. My father is a farmer. Like a REAL farmer. That is his occupation. He grows crops for big companies that we all eat. I'm not sure if the stats on this are still true but as of a few years ago if you ate any granulated sugar there was a high chance that it came from a sugar beet my dad helped farm. Cool beans huh? All my life I remember my dad getting up at some AWEFUL rediculous hour in the morning to go to work. Rain was either good or bad depending on what was growing but I made sure I didn't comment on how much I liked it in case it was bad. He's done it for 25+ years and is a natural at it.

I, on the other hand, am a curse to my genetic heritage. I CANNOT keep plants alive. If I touch the roots, leaves, or even sneeze in the direction of a plant it will shrivel up and die. True story. Therefore when I decided that in order to cut back our grocery budget that I was going to plant a garden, my husband looked at me like I was a blue smurf that had just fell out of the sky. With a few chuckles and a "yeah right honey" look. Aaron agreed to help me get the soil all ready and we planted the next day. Aarons sister and littlest brother came over and helped us plant. It was a fun little bonding experience!

We planted:
Cilantro
Parsley
Basil
Chives
Spinich
Carrots
Onions
Zuccini
Butternut Squash
Cucumber
Tomato
Snap Peas
Marvel Peas
Bell Peppers
Sunflowers
and Corn

The last one was a personal request of Emily. She just HAD to have corn in her garden. We don't eat enough corn so it wasn't originally in the layout for the garden but since a garden wasn't a garden without some corn I made a special trip all the way to OSH to buy some corn for Emily to plant.

Here's the pictures:

What's gardening without a little mud between the toes?

P.S. my garden is starting to sprout. Well...the basil, peppers and squashes that I didn't touch are sprouting....we will see how "Farmer BlackThumb" does.

because apparently all stripes match

THIS is my Emily... in the rawest form. Alot of times I post pictures on here where I've had it planned that I was going to take pictures OR she looked exceptionally cute so I pulled out the camera. However those days are few and far between now that I have 2 to bathe, feed and dress (not including myself). 

Emilys favorite place to be right now is on the trampoline...or "in the garden" (which includes free roam of the whole yard) She has "tea parties"(speaking of which...those pictures will be here soon) with her stuffed animals or spends hours being chased by her ball. Oh the joys of a trampoline and gravity! 

On this particular day Claire was napping and Emily wanted to go jump. I told her to get dressed and this is what she gave me. A shirt that is on sideways... and pants that are on inside out. When I tried to persuade her that these two things, although cute, didn't match she told me "They match mommy...they both have stripes!!" How do you argue with a 3 year old?! You can't. It's impossible and if anyone happens to figure it out in this  lifetime can you please tell me?

So here's some pictures of Emily, goofy as ever, self dressed, in all her glory:

2 MONTHS! Where does the time go?!

Really...where does it go? They say time goes by fast when you get out of high school...it goes even quicker when you have a kid. Well...let me tell you folks (who don't already know) It goes doubly fast when you have 2 kids. I couldn't imagine having even more. That Dugger mom must be 80 by now!

Claire- is growing like a weed. She fills out her 3 month clothes. I would guess it's not going to be much longer until she is going in to 6 month clothes. 

She also has her dreaded 8 weeks appointment. This will be her first 'shots' appointment. FOUR needles. I even cringe thinking of it! On the brighter side, we get to see how much chunk she has put on in the last month. My guess is 13lb 2 oz. and an inch longer.

Emily- is an AMAZING big sister. Now that the newness of having a baby in the house has worn off she isn't constantly trying to smother her...with bear hugs and sloppy kisses. She can give Claire her pacifier like a pro. She is excellent at grabbing diapers AND throwing them away. She loves to 'help' give Claire a bath by scrubbing her toes for me. And best of all she makes her sister smile. Claire already knows her voice. As soon as Emily walks in to the room and starts talking Claire lights up and looks around for her big sister. Some of the biggest smiles have been when Emily is playing with her. 

Emily is getting impatient though. She wants so bad to be able to do her hair and jump on the trampoline with her. She's got alot of time to go before she can do that and she's already growing impatient.

Here are some pictures of my grub and bug: