A Visit to the Claus House

Tonight we met my mom, my sister, Will and Sophie at the Sylvania Historic Museum. It is an old home, which is decorated beautifully for Christmas. They also have Santa and Mrs. Claus available for pictures. You can roam the house and take all the pictures that you want. It is free and they even pass out candy canes for the little kids. Will LOVED his candy cane!

A few pics of the house...

Nana, Ashley, Will and SophMy girls with SantaAll the kiddos with Santa and Mrs. Claus (way to hard to get them all to look)The RethmansThe Riedemans (minus Craig)Daddy and StellaMommy and MyaWes, Stella and WillOur "Baby Bus" all loaded up and ready to go.

6 Month Check-up!

Today we went for Mya and Stella's 6 month well baby visit. We haven't been there since they were 4 months old and so I was very curious how big they were. They had been growing about 2 lbs. a month, but I knew that they would slow down soon so I didn't really know what to guess. At 4 months Mya was 15lbs. 2oz. and 25 1/4 in. long. Stella was 13lbs. 4oz. and 24 3/4 in. long. Today Mya was 16lbs. even and 25 /34 in. and Stella was 14lbs. 10 oz. and also 25 3/4 in. long. Mya only gained 14 oz. in 2 months and grew 1/2 an inch. Stella gained 1 lb. 6oz. and grew a whole inch. Dr. Carmen said this is normal and they are just fine. Mya is in the 50th percentile for both height and weight and Stella is in the 25th percentile for weight and 50th for height.

My sister, a dietician whose job it is to monitor children's growth, said that it makes perfect sense. Wes and I are not big people so our children are not going to be either. She also said that Dr. Carmen told her that children normally find the growth pattern they will continue on at around 6 months. I am fine with them being the size that they are, it is just exciting to me to see them grow a bunch at a time because it makes me feel like I've done my job feeding them. I know they are eating though, because they are certainly sucking the life out of me. I am currently down to 105 lbs., which is 13 lbs. lighter than I was before I got pregnant. I am grateful that the weight came off so easily, but now I'm having trouble stopping the weight loss. I don't fit in any of my pants and even my new pants are baggy. I can't afford to keep buying clothes so if you see me and my clothes are sagging off of me you will know why. LOL My sister gave me some yoga pants (basically spandex) and her and I laugh because those are now baggy on me.

Back to the doctor's appointment update. They also had to get the next round of vaccines. They do so well with this. They both cried about 10 seconds and then they were done. Mya even smiled shortly after. We opted to get the flu shot (although I asked several questions about thermarisol -sp?) but decided not to get the H1N1 shot. That just makes us nervous and we don't think it is really necessary. The doctor said if we change our minds we can always come back and get it.

Finally, it was absolutely hilarious how much they loved that white paper that is rolled out over the bed. They were going crazy on it and laughing and smiling so much. We had to roll out a new piece a few times. LOL Makes me excited for opening presents at Christmas this year!

Babies, Babies, Babies!

Today I got together with my good friend, Kelly, and her family which includes an adorable 2 year old Brody AND a set of boy/girl twins! Her sweet little babies, Emersyn and Jaxson, are exactly 3 months younger than my girls. It's funny because Kelly and I had almost the exact same pregnancy. We both delivered our babies via C-section at 37 weeks and 5 days. Jaxson was born second, was breech and weighed 6 lbs. 2 oz. ~ Stella was all of those things as well! Crazy! We both had to try pretty hard to be blessed with our little miracles, which makes us love them even more! We had a great time today. We did this 2 months ago and all the babies have grown so much!

Emmy & Jax (1 month) Mya & Stella (4 months)
Emmy & Jax (3 months) Mya & Stella (6 months)All the babies joined by BrodyKelly teaches 2nd grade with me at Lake Elementary and it was a joke last year that there was something in the water. Two teachers pregnant with twins in one grade level! Kelly took the entire school year off and she knows that I am having major anxiety about going back to work in January. So my awesome friend got me a very thoughtful gift! She wrote a very nice card and compiled a "Workin' Momma's Care Package".
There was a paper explaining what items were in the box and why. Here is what it said:

*Baby clothes - Nothing to help you out at school, really, but I know how excited I get about new baby clothes, and you're probably the same way!

*Coffee - I think I read somewhere that you were giving up caffeine, so in case you change your mind or have one of those mornings after a late night at home, these are delish!

*Goldfish - You need to have some snacks on hand to keep your energy up, and come on....crackers shaped like little fishies?? You feel like a kid again! (P.S. they were s'mores and chocolate flavored..........AMAZING)

*Notepad/Sticky notes - For all the notes you're going to take for me about the new, um...everything. Yikes!

*Pens - I thought some new, brightly colored pens were just what you needed to get yourself motivated to grade papers again. Ugh!

*Sanitizer/Lotion - Well, the sanitizer you'll probably be using a lot of because if you're like I was after coming back from maternity leave, you will freak when one of your students sneezes, coughs, picks their nose, etc. etc. Sanitizer makes your hands dry, hence the lotion!

*Gum - I got nothin' for this one. It's just gum.

*Toothbrushes/Deodorant - This is not because I think you stink. (Did I just rhyme?) You will have crazy mornings, and sometimes you just forget to do little things like these. Keep these at school for emergencies! :o)

Kelly is an awesome friend and I so appreciate her! It is so nice to spend time with someone who knows what you feel like. We both are super busy with our babies, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

Christmas Pictures

On Sunday Wes and I attempted to take some pictures that we could use for our Christmas card of the girls in their dresses. It was tricky and although I got some cute pictures, we ended up going a different route and I ordered the cards last night. I can't wait until they get here. In a previous post I said that we didn't have room for a Christmas tree. That was killing me that the girls would not have one for their first Christmas. So I went and bought a 2 foot tree and mini ornaments. It is nothing special, but it sits on our entertainment center and I feel better about myself as a mom. It ended being the perfect size for my ladies!

Sweetness

Wes had to put the girls to bed by himself last night because I had a meeting for our home business. He had to feed them some cereal, give them a bath, give them a bottle and put them to bed! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my wonderful husband has done this several times without ever complaining and it is a lot of work! He even managed to take some absolutely adorable pictures of them. They fell asleep in the Boppy after he burped them.....too bad he then had to wake them up to put them in bed. Oh well, they went right back to sleep. Great job, Daddy!

Happy Half Birthday

Today my sweet little bundles of joy turned 6 months old. Excuse me while I wipe my eyes....I know I've said it a million times but I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I really need life to slow down a little because they are going to be in kindergarten before I know it! I took their monthly picture by the sign like I always do. However, Stella was very uninterested in paying attention and smiling for the camera. I don't have a very good picture of her because she just wanted to play with the sign. By the end she destroyed it. I'm going to have to get a little more creative from here on out, I guess. Mya, on the other hand, is becoming quite the ham. She couldn't wipe the smile off of her face today, which I LOVE!
Yes, that's my sign all crumbled up...
Love their little hands in this one...Ok, so for an update on each of my girls...
*Mya Alyse is sitting up unassisted. She had been tipping over after a few seconds before and then all of a sudden 2 days ago she sat up and stayed there for about 3 minutes. She can play with a toy in her hand and even shake it without falling over! You will see that she is sitting up in her monthly update pic! She absolutely hated rice cereal for all 4 days that she had to try it. However, today we got to try banana and she really liked that. She is warming up to the sippy cup with water in it. She "talks" all the time and it is really starting to sound like the beginning of words - "ba", "ma", "ga" etc. She is constantly on the move and into everything. The other day Wes left some school papers on the floor (he should have known better) and we walked out of the room. We came back to the paper all crumpled up and Mya sucking on it. Apparently it was an important spreadsheet with student reading scores on it. He said "Uh oh, my Daughter ate my homework" LOL. You could still read it but the ink was all smudged. She also is very into different textures and wants to touch everything. She's a big face toucher too, but then she just squeezes your skin and it kind of hurts. I'm constantly cutting her nails for this reason! She is such a sweet baby and I fall more in love with her everyday!
*Stella Grace is becoming quite the talker. She is also babbling like her sister and it is so cute to see them have a "conversation". Stella is also very mobile. She rolls and scooches everywhere. Normally Ifind her under the swing or up sucking on the entertainment center. Naturally they explore with their mouth and EVERYTHING goes in there! Including one of Milo's toys once - ewwwww! She really took to eating the rice cereal, but strangely wasn't very into the banana. She was never as dramatic as Mya about not liking it, but she had a look on her face like "What IS this?" She is still very much a Mommy's girl, but is slowly loosening up with other people. She LOVES her sister and the second she sees Mya her face lights up and she starts talking to her. They both love to touch each other and I have to be right there all the time or they will "lovingly" pull on an ear or poke an eye. They are both going to sleep much easier in their sleep sacks and for the most part sleep all night. Stella takes a bottle (the few times she's been given one) very well and chugs it! I'm glad about that because that would be a real battle for Lisa if she wasn't interested in having a bottle. She is very snuggly when she gets tired and Wes says there isn't anything in the world like the feeling he gets when his daughters snuggle into his neck after a long day at work. Stella is very sassy and I look forward to seeing more of her personality as she grows up (and yes you can remind me I said that when she's a teenager!). I love her so stinkin' much and I feel so blessed to have such perfect children. P.S.Remember that her pictures are blurry and not that great because she did not want her picture taken today. I tried for a long time!

Sadly, I'm Not Decking the Halls

I'm feeling very depressed and Scroogish about the fact that our house is too small to hold baby stuff and Christmas decorations. We have a beautiful tree and tons of gorgeous decorations (see pics from a past Christmas), but no space to put it up. Our tiny living room is filled to the max with furniture, a baby swing, a jumperoo, bouncy seats and toys. I can't put those things away for a month - we use them everyday. There is just no other place to put a tree either. It just really bums me out that this is their first Christmas and there is no tree. I know they won't remember it, but I will! Hence, the fact that we are currently house hunting. We have completely outgrown our little home. We are planning to put our house on the market very soon. We just aren't sure if we want to stick it out until the spring or continue to move forward with the search and move now. We'll see, I guess.