Friday

**My mind is spinning with the news of the shooting at the Elementary school in Connecticut. How can this happen? What can be done to stop this in the future? How those parents must be feeling, I cannot imagine. Prayer is all I am left with and all I can do.**

This week was a good one. We're figuring out little by little how to go about our days with two kiddos and a crazy dog. This is the last week that we had meals delivered by our church friends (amazing, so appreciated). Next week will be me cooking, or at least attempting to, with an 18 month old running around my feet. Thankfully, I figured out that if we let her "help" she's not so whiny and difficult. It's actually pretty fun to talk her through what I'm doing and letting her help with little things.

I had my first (well, technically second since I did have one years ago when I was teaching while in school) piano recital and it went so well. I was nervous about it of course, but my students did awesome and my house is now super clean. I made a bunch of holiday cookies (my baking for the year) and have eaten way too many of them, but it got that itch to bake out of my system and I was happy to share them with these families that I am growing to love. That's one of the best parts of giving lessons - the relationships I get to build with both the students and their parents.

Today I am renewing my driver's license (oh so fun), getting a haircut, getting some holiday Starbucks, and bringing the kids to see Santa at the mall. We're waiting til Hubby is home so he can join us, but I have low expectations. We haven't talked about Santa at all so the only way Jo's been exposed to it is by other people. I'm not against Santa, but it's not a big deal to me like it is to others. I really want her to get that it's about Jesus, so she plays with her nativity scene and walks around pointing out Jesus everywhere. I'm loving that. But yes, we'll do the whole "sit on Santa's lap" thing and try our hardest to get a picture. Let it be noted, though, that we'd TOTALLY sit on Jesus' lap first if we could.

I just gave Jo a haircut. Myself. She just need the back trimmed, and it curls up so much I figured I could just trim it myself and it would hide the uneven cutting that I did. So far, I don't hate it. We'll see though how long that lasts before I'm dragging her in to my hairstylist.

I have some more photos of Audrey for you! I didn't post enough photos of Jo when she was so little and changing so much every day. Here you go.

Love this little half smile.

We've been getting more and more wake time with this girl! It's fun to watch her zone in on our faces now that her eyes are focusing more.

I can't just forget about Jo though. This is what I got from her when I took the camera away from her. She was not impressed.

We rocked matching socks the other day. Yep, I've become that mom. I'm okay with it.

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Little bits of Fun

We get creative around here when we are bored... Josie has fallen in love with hair accessories. She often comes up to me with a clip and says "haya? haya?" (hair) so I put it in her hair and she marches back to her room. Usually she goes back and forth a couple of times before finding something new to play with, but sometimes she just doesn't stop. See below.

I have wrapped a few presents around here. Just a few. I still have at least half left... but doesn't the tree look so much better when it's not so bare down there??

And last but not least: my aunt out in Portland sent us a gift for Audrey's birth and she always has quite the display.

For Audrey:

Here's everything she got. Adorable matching outfit with some fancy pancy socks.

BUT THEN there was this hidden layer underneath. Oh man - big sis Josie was not forgotten!

We haven't shown it to her yet, because we're waiting for the moment when she's bored and being mischievous, but I know she will love it. How do I know? Because you can't put a farm themed toy in front of her without her going bonkers. Yep, bonkers. 

Thank you Aunt Laurel!! You are always generous and we feel the love. :)

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Things to Remember

I went back through my blog posts I wrote when Josie was the age Audrey is now and was disappointed with the lack of detail I had. To avoid this, I'm just going to list a bunch of things here. I'm all about the random lists these days (to match my random thoughts I guess).

1. Audrey sleeps amazing. We thought that Josie was a good sleeper but in comparison she was terrible. Okay she wasn't terrible at all, but Audrey is a champ. She goes to bed for real at around 11:00 and doesn't get up until 5:30. I feed her a tiny bit, never a full meal, and she sleeps until 8:30 or when I wake her up. She does eat more in the morning to make up for it, but then will take a great 3 hour nap in the morning, have some wake time in the afternoon, and naps again for most of the rest of the day. 

2. Audrey is super hard to wake up. I can spend up to an hour trying to wake her and it does nothing. I give up trying to wake her to feed her! She has set her own schedule and there's nothing I can do about it. My body will just have to adjust to it, even though it is fighting to produce more milk than necessary and at the wrong times. Eventually I know it will get better.

3. She's almost three weeks old and still fitting in newborn clothing. Josie didn't ever really fit in newborn clothes so it's a little strange for me to see all of the 0-3 month clothes waiting to be worn and ignore them for now. She's so small to us.

4. She hardly ever cries. At bath time, she wakes up, looks around, makes a few small peeps, and goes with the flow. She really only loses it when I can't get there right away. Otherwise, she just makes a few "warning peeps" that she's awake and hungry and if I'm able to get there within 5 minutes (which is most of the time) she never cries at all.

5. Audrey has a bit of digestion issues. I can tell she's gassy based on her movements. She squirms a lot and grunts while sleeping, so I bought PediaCare Gas Relief drops and it seems to be helping. This being said, she never spits up. In fact, the one time she has, we both were surprised by it and I didn't even remember what to do! She had this look on her face like "what was that?!" and hasn't done it since. I'm sure this will change, but it has caught me off guard. 

6. She has had some terrible baby acne (way more than Josie did). It started on her forehead and moved it's way down her whole face. It's clearing up a bunch, but she looks so splotchy right now. It comes out a lot more when the flash goes off in pictures and in the natural sunlight, but otherwise you hardly notice it. She's still super cute. :)

7. She can be held constantly (loves to cuddle) or set down for long periods of time and doesn't fuss about it. Amazing. Enough said.

8. She's such a blessing to us. She's used to her sister screaming and doesn't even react when there is chaos around her. Josie likes to look at her and sometimes will give her kisses. I can't wait to watch their relationship grow.

9. At her two week appointment, we learned that she hasn't grown in length much but now weights 8 lbs 15 oz (was 8 lb 6 oz at birth). You can definitely tell by looking at her that she has grown a lot! No more squishy face and she doesn't look like a fragile newborn. 

10. Girlfriend has long skinny feet. They are just like her daddy's and look so different than mine and Jo's. I could just stare at her hands and feet all day... so sweet.

That's enough for now. I'll probably do another post like this with more details later.

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Catch Up

It's too much to have a thought out well written post, so here's my brain dump.

1. So far parenting two has been both awesome and terrifying. I have managed to juggle them both outside of the house, but haven't ventured out to any real places that doesn't include assistance from grandparents, auntie or hubby.

2. Audrey's blessed me with great sleeping habits at night so far. She only wakes once around 5-6:30 and then goes back to sleep until 8:30 or so. It's awesome but I'm not getting too comfortable with it because I know how quickly sleeping patterns can change!

3. This week I am giving lessons again after a two week break. I'm only doing it this week and next before having our holiday break, but it's crazy how much having to bring the girls over to grandma's a couple of days a week makes me feel so busy and scatter brained. It'll definitely take a while to get used to a normal schedule again. 

4. When bringing the girls to grandma's, Audrey's been awesome. She has slept the whole time and I was able to feed her enough that she doesn't wake up hungry without her food source. I hope that is the norm.

5. I have no idea when to shower. I suppose the answer would be at night after they are sleeping, but I have no motivation to get up and do it after I sit down in the evening. 

6. I did Pilates during their nap time the other day and remembered why I loved it when pregnant. Hopefully I can do it a couple of times a week. It's just hard to remember that awesome "after" feeling before starting...

7. Today during nap time, I tried to wrap presents. I got two done before hearing both girls awake on the monitor. That's not much progress. I hope to have them all wrapped by Christmas...?

8. People from our church have been bringing us meals every other day to help out (which is so awesome by the way) and it has given me some new ideas for meals. So not only have they been super helpful with the meals in general, they've been providing me with some fresh ideas in the kitchen. Can't beat that!

9. I fit into my "fat" jeans that aren't maternity. In fact, they are a little loose and I need a belt (that I don't have... my belts don't fit yet unfortunately). I even got into the size smaller that was a little too tight when I got pregnant. They are still super tight, but hey - I got them zipped. That's a victory! I still have a lot of baby weight to lose and then some, but I love the motivation I get from the little things like that.

10. I haven't cut my hair in 9 months. It's getting ridiculously long. I need a trim and am debating getting bangs, but then I remember all of the work it takes to keep them looking good. Thoughts?

Pictures of the last couple of days:

She thinks she's so funny sitting in Audrey's bassinet.

This girl is so hard to photograph accurately. I swear most of the time she's not making weird bug-eyed faces but the light from the camera must make her react... most pictures make me laugh! She's so cute... wish the pictures did her true justice!

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