Thanksgiving

The girls and I drove up to my parents' house on Tuesday.  Daddy had to work on Wednesday and Saturday, so he drove up separately on Thursday and drove home on Friday, so we were able to spend some extra time at Grandma's house since we drove separately.

Grandma had some new costumes for Rachel to play with.  She especially loved this pirate costume, though you can't see it all that well in this picture. 

Emma, Rachel's cousin, tried the pirate costume, too (though, I know it's hardly the focus of this picture!).

Emma was such a great playmate for both Rachel and Rebecca.  Rachel had a ball with all of her cousins, but Emma in particular let Rachel choose what they did and was such a help to me, entertaining her!

Rebecca was a happy girl most of the time when she was awake, despite a terrible cold she's been fighting for weeks.  It seemed to get worse while we were there, but despite a ton of sneezing, horrible naps, and a terribly runny nose, she was a smiley girl.

Rachel wore this "outfit" at her first Thanksgiving.  My mom saved it and Rebecca wore it this year (for about 3 minutes!).

 
She enjoyed chewing on the decorations.  Notice the duct-taped high chair....this was the high chair my grandma used for my brothers and me when we were babies...so it's been through my brothers and me (35-40 years ago!), my brother's three kids, Rachel, and now Rebecca.  My mom doesn't think it's going to last through Rebecca's toddlerhood, though.  It's on its last leg!

Rachel was sick while we were there, too.  The first couple of days she had a fever on and off and started getting a cold.  Rachel gets colds quite a bit, but hardly ever do they knock her down.  This one did for a few hours at a time.  The children's motrin seemed to get rid of things in a hurry, however, and she was off and running with her cousins again.

Thanksgiving night we had quite an interesting night, however.  First Rachel had one of her episodes where she wakes up crying uncontrollably.  I don't know if I've written about these, or maybe it's just been awhile since I have.  But since she was maybe 2 she's had these night terrors or something where she cries and rocks back and forth and she's mostly asleep and completely out of it.  She doesn't respond to questions or consoling or anything, but if we try to leave the room she cries even harder--she wants us there, but doesn't want us touching her, usually.  Turning the light on helps a little bit, and she becomes a bit more alert, but Thanksgiving night it didn't help.  She was hyperventillating, she was crying so hard.  I had to hold her (she reached up to me, which she never does) and rock her forever to calm her down.  Her eyes were closed the whole time.  So, so strange....and scary.

Then at 6 AM we were awakened by what sounded like gunfire outside.  Immediately the power went out.  Rachel started screaming, "Mommy, I don't like those sounds!" and was crying.  I felt my way into her room in the pitch black and calmed her down (she was alert that time).  The "gunfire" sound was the transformers outside my parents' house.  Thankfully Rebecca slept through the whole thing, but the rest of the house was up in total darkness.  My dad started the fireplace and my mom entertained Rachel with shadow puppets and drawing pictures by firelight while my husband and I went back to bed.  It didn't last long, though, since Rebecca woke up soon after that.  The power was only out for about an hour, thankfully, because it was COLD that day!

My brother surprised us all by walking in the back door on Wednesday evening.  He lives in NYC and wasn't supposed to have been home this year.  It was great to have my whole family together for several days, especially since he and his wife are moving to Prague next month and who knows when we'll get to see him.  We played a couple of rousing games of "The Game of Things," which I had never played before (and I won!).

I went shopping twice on Black Friday, though not at a crazy early hour (we were too busy dealing with having no power at 6 AM!).  First my husband and I went out--our only opportunity to Christmas shop together without the kiddos--and then I went out with my mom so I could buy some things for him.  It wasn't too crowded or crazy by the time I was out and about. 

And now it's time to think about Christmas....it's hard to believe.  This next month is going to FLY by.    

technical difficulties

I've been trying for days to post pictures from Thanksgiving.  For some reason Blogger isn't letting me.  Stay tuned for pictures and a recap, when it finally decides to work.

swallowed up

Last week when Daddy and Rachel were raking leaves, Rebecca also got her turn in the leaf pile. 

She was completely swallowed up by the leaves!

an update

:: Rebecca went to physical therapy yesterday.  The whole thing has been a long process, but we're finally set to go once a month.  A few weeks ago when we went for another evaluation they gave me several exercises to do with her and said they wanted to follow her progress.  I've been doing them faithfully and she's coming along, according to the PT.  She said Rebecca's back and neck muscles are strong and that she has really good head control.  So even though she still can't roll, sit up alone for very long, or push up very well, she's getting there.  I'm less worried about her than I was a couple of weeks ago.

:: Rachel's naptime has finally come to an end.  (sniff...sniff....as I mourn the loss of naptime!)  On Monday I instituted "rest time" instead of nap time.  Rest time consists of staying on her bed and looking at books until the clock says 3:00, and then playing in her room until I go get her.  I started rest time because she hadn't been sleeping (or taking two hours to fall asleep!) for a week or so, and even before that, naps were becoming fewer and fewer and she was complaining more and more about not being tired when it was time.  I finally decided I had to stop being in denial about it.  But yesterday (day two of rest time) I heard a "thud," went to see what it was, and she was fast asleep, the book on the floor (that was the thud!).  So maybe she's not quite ready to give it up.  But she's excited about rest time and actually told me today she was tired and wanted to go rest, so at least it's a lot easier than dealing with a girl who doesn't want to take a nap!  And I still get my break in the afternoon (as long as Rebecca is napping, which is a whole other issue).

:: Rebecca is NOT a napper.  I finally have her on an eating schedule (6 AM, 10AM, 2PM, and 5PM (I'd love to wait until 6, but she is dying to go to bed by 5:30 or 5:45!), then I wake her up at 9:30 and feed her and put her right back to bed), but a nap schedule still hasn't happened.  She rarely sleeps past 45 minutes, so I have to let her cry until she falls back asleep, but right now she has a cold, so if I let her cry she gets all snotty, stuffy, and gross, and really just mad.  She doesn't go back to sleep because she's all stuffed up, so I just have to get her up.  So she's taking many 20-45 minute naps a day right now.  Ugh.  Any advice on how to deal with short naps during a cold??

:: Rachel's always been a well behaved girl.  But for the last several weeks she's been pushing the envelope in the obedience department.  It's so unlike her, and I'm really, REALLY hoping it's just a phase that she'll grow out of as soon as she realizes that I mean what I say and she's going to get herself in trouble consistently each time she choses disobedience, but man, is it rough to go through.  She's such a sweet girl and I hate to see that changing.  It's just a phase...it's just a phase....it's just a phase....or so I hope.  Tell me this isn't what I have to look forward to for the next 15 years.

:: I'm getting sick again.  I don't know if I wrote before about the tonsilitis, ear infections, and sinus infection I had, which ended just about 2 or 3 weeks ago.  And now I have another cold, likely whatever Rebecca has.  This is what I hate about fall/winter--passing all of our germs back and forth.  Yuck.

:: Next week we're headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for 5 days.  Rachel's been talking about it for WEEKS.  She even told her class all about Grandma's butterscotch pie that she makes for Thanksgiving.  I don't know who's more excited about it....Rachel or me!  Over the river and through the woods....

a day off

Rachel didn't have school today because of parent-teacher conferences.  So here's how she spent the morning.

(Teaching Rebecca how to play Candy Land.  Do you think Rebecca understood the game?)

(This is Rebecca's toy....Rachel's been playing with her toys more than Rebecca does!  Doesn't the party hat accesorize the nightgown just perfectly??)


Daddy came home for lunch and was getting some leaf-raking done.  Rachel wanted to jump in them, but he said she had to rake some first.

Finally she was allowed to jump.

And here's a sunny Rebecca, just because.

a non-commercial post

Sorry that my last post was an advertisement....this one isn't, unless you consider it an advertisement for the cutest baby ever (from the most biased Mommy ever!). 

Actually she's one of the two cutest babies ever....  her sister was just as adorable!  :)


We were practicing sitting up again today, so I took some pictures.

And last night I asked my husband to take some pictures of me with Rebecca because I think I only have two of them, since I'm always the one taking the pictures of her. 

Shutterfly, how do I love thee?

Let me count the ways....

1) If you could see the top of my desk right now you'd see about 8 orange Shutterfly envelopes stacked high, filled with pictures for me to scrapbook.  I'm so behind!!  But one of the many great things about Shutterfly is their photo books.  When I get really behind in scrapbooking I can easily put together a really nice "scrapbook," including pictures and captions, in a fraction of the time it takes me to scrapbook.  Rachel gave one to Daddy for his birthday this past year, I made one for Rachel's first birthday, and we have one from our first family vacation to the Outer Banks, among several other trips.  She loves looking at them and remembering, and I love that our history is documented, no matter how far behind I am in our regular scrapbooks!

2) I love their photo cards.  I've given them for birthday cards for several family birthdays in the past few years, as well as Mother's Day.  I love adding pictures of the girls and personalizing what I want it to say on the inside.  I'm excited that this year they're offering bloggers 50 free photo cards for writing about them on their blog!  If you're a blogger, you can do it, too! Click here to see the details.

I can't wait to choose which Christmas card to order this year.  There are SO many options this year, and I love the collage cards where you can choose more than one picture for your card.  Since we now have two little ones, I'd love to be able to have a close up of both of them, along with a family picture.

3) One of my very favorite products from Shutterfly is their photo calendars.  For the past several Christmases I've made one for ourselves and given several as gifts to our families.  In fact, I've already started making this year's calendar (thankfully they let you start and save it, coming back multiple times to finish up, because there's no way with little ones that I can finish it in one sitting!).

4) I've actually never tried making one, but I've received one of their Christmas ornaments as a gift.  It's beautiful, and I love Christmas ornaments with pictures on them.  I may try making one with the girls' pictures this year.


If you've never tried Shutterfly, you don't know what you're missing!  Of all of the photo printing sites out there, it is by far my favorite.  They offer the best sales throughout the year, and if you know me at all, you know I'm all about finding a good deal!  Go take a look!

pushing up

Rebecca's been rather slow to get this down....but she's finally pushing up a little bit.  Yesterday she played (and fussed) on her tummy for quite awhile, and I was able to catch some shots of her practicing her push up skills.

I don't know what's up with her left hand--sometimes when she pushes up, her hand is bent in strange ways.  I kept trying to fix it--looks quite uncomfortable to me!

And here's my favorite.

practice makes perfect

We've been practicing the fine art of sitting.

She's getting better, but still usually ends up like this:

...and eventually in a face plant, but I rescued her before that happened this time.

We're getting there!

trick or treat, round two

Rachel woke up this morning talking about it being trick or treating day.  She kept asking, "Is it 6 o'clock yet, Mommy?"

We all went together this year. 

Rebecca looked around in her car seat for the first 30 minutes or so, but then she started fussing.  It was past her bedtime and it was cold and windy (she was warm, but I was cold!).  We had already turned around and started heading for home because Rachel was tired, too, but I left and headed back home as fast as I could push the stroller into the wind in order to get a tired, cranky Rebecca into bed.  Rachel and Daddy finished trick or treating on the way home.

Rachel was so fun to watch.  She'd run up to each house, get her candy, and run back to us saying, "Did you see what I got, Mom?  I got CHOCOLATE!"  like it was a complete surprise and thrill.  And each house was just as exciting as the last. 

Now her care bear costume has entered her dress up bin, so I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot of Funshine Bear around the house for the next couple of weeks.

five months

She's five months old today....I can't believe it.

At five months, Rebecca is still obsessed with putting her hands in her mouth.  And I mean OBSESSED!

I remember Rachel going through a phase like that, but Rebecca's hand chewing phase seems to be lasting MUCH longer!  She seems to be heading toward a thumb or finger sucker--she can't seem to decide what she likes better--her thumb or a couple of fingers at a time.

She smiles a lot and is a pretty happy girl most of the time (except the last hour or so of the day).

She can't roll over yet, but seems to be getting close in the last few days.  She is pushing up on her hands a very little bit, too, finally, and will stay propped up on her elbows longer, though it's not her favorite.  She is close to sitting by herself, but is a GREAT supported sitter.  It seems to be her favorite position.  She can hold onto things for quite awhile now, and she's often happiest under her play gym, squealing at herself in the mirror and holding on to the toys that hang down from it.

She goes to bed around 6 pm, gets up around 6:30 am, and is sleeping all night, as long as we get her up to feed her at 9:30 pm.  Her naps are sporadic....I wish I could tell you we're on a good daily schedule, but I'm STILL working on that with her.  She loves oatmeal, and I'm sure she'd devour any kind of food we'd try to give her right now, but we're sticking to oatmeal for one more month.

She likes to be tickled under her chin and likes it when I sing to her.  She kicks her feet vigorously when she's excited or about to get upset, and she's easily startled by loud noises.  She "talks" to me a lot on the changing table, but otherwise she's pretty quiet, quite the opposite of her sister when she was a baby (and still is today!).  I wonder if that means Rebecca will be our quiet one, more like Mommy?  Only time will tell, I guess.

Most of this I wrote so I can fill it in in her baby book eventually, but hopefully some of you will still enjoy reading about my sweet girl!  She's growing so fast!

musings

*Rachel's discovered Super Heroes.  Oh brother.  She latches on to new characters like you wouldn't believe.  So while it was first (and still) princesses, then Thomas, then Cars, then Care Bears, now it's The Incredibles.  She puts on her "Super Boots," (pink cowboy boots), "Super Cape," (the felt Wonder Pets cape my mom and I made her when she was two), "Super Gloves," (white princess gloves, two sizes too big), and paper Spiderman mask from a birthday party she went to, and suddenly she's Mr. Incredible.  Then she slowly takes her mask off to show me that she's really just Rachel.  Thank goodness she reminds me, because I frequently forget, you know.

*Rachel's fascinated with the human body and asks me over and over to read her this Dr. Seuss book we have called, "Inside Your Outside," which talks (in rhyme, no less!) about the body.  So I'm currently sick with a cold or some sort of sinus thing and today she came up to me (as I was laying on the couch, not feeling well) with her pretend princess camera and tried (unsuccessfully) to lift up my shirt to "take a picture of the germs inside you."  I asked her why and she said, "Because I want to see those white things (white blood cells) eating the germs!"  (That's what the book says....that your white blood cells eat the germs when you get sick to help you get better.)

*Rebecca had her Help Me Grow evaluation earlier this week to see if she qualified for physical therapy.  She didn't qualify.  So on the one hand, it's good because they've determined that she's more normal than abnormal.  But on the other hand, it's not so good, because she's still not rolling over or pushing up, and they won't provide the physical therapy so she can learn how!  So I'm hoping that we can maybe do a few physical therapy sessions where we went before, learn what we need to know, and then I can do the exercises at home with her myself. 

*Until last night, Rebecca had been sleeping through the night for about two weeks straight.  I didn't write about it here because I didn't know if it would last.  I'm hoping last night was just a fluke (she was wet all the way through her clothes--which is all the impetus I need to move her up a size in diapers--I've been putting it off to try and get the most bang for my buck--there are more size 2 diapers in a package than size 3 diapers--but I'll gladly pay for the extra diapers if it means she'll keep sleeping all night!) and that from now on she'll stay dry and keep sleeping.  We'll see.

*That's about all I can come up with on a Saturday afternoon when I'm not feeling well.  Thursday night is trick or treat night around here, so I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures of my Care Bears again after that occurs.

a getaway

My husband and I were able to get away for the weekend last weekend without the girls.  My parents kept Rachel and Rebecca and we took a mini-road trip.  I won't tell you where we went, but for those of you who know where I live, it was about 2 hours south of us at a city on the river. 

We had a wonderful time.  I'd never left Rebecca, so I was really scared that I was going to spend the whole weekend missing her and worried about her, but I didn't.  Yes, I missed her, and I skyped with my parents a few times so I could see her (and Rachel, too!), but otherwise, I did fine with leaving her.  And the girls did great and were well behaved for Grandma and Grandpa.

Here's a picture taken at a park down by the river.

We didn't have anyone to take our picture, so this was a do it yourself photo with the river behind us.  I kept closing my eyes when I pressed the button so I had to put my sunglasses on so you couldn't tell!

We went to a conservatory in that park and saw some beautiful plants and flowers.

This is at the same park.  It's crooked, and not really a beautiful background, but there was a wall that we could set the camera on (we didn't have a tripod with us) so we tried it.

On the way back home we stopped at a state park.  The next pictures are from there.

We also went out to dinner two nights, saw a movie, went shopping, and basically just had a weekend-long date night!  It was lots of fun and a very, VERY nice break.  The weather was gorgeous, too!  Thank you, Mom and Dad, for taking such good care of my little girls!