Weeks Four & Five: 2 under 2

First of all, I'm not sure if some of the readers don't notice the links to pictures, so here they are, front and center:

The Girls

Well, as you can see, we've been busy. Things have been getting better in a lot of ways. We're really getting to figure Izzy out. She's going to be our cuddle bug, the one who loves to sit on someones lap, just to be close. She doesn't like to be left alone or left out flat on her back. She'll turn her head and watch us walk around and as soon as it's been to long for her to be alone, she'll start crying. If she is already changed and fed, but still crying, we've found the key. A sling. I got a sling a couple weeks ago and that does the trick everytime and still allows us to mulit-task a bit. She loves being put in the fetal position, close to us and bounced. In terms of sleeping at night, we've got that down. Like with Anna, we give her a bath, then feed her and put her to bed (which is still the carseat at this point). She usually goes down when we go to bed and up between 5-7. I can handle that (and soon we'll both be able to handle that as I have 2 weeks left on maternity leave). We've been introducing a bottle a day with formula so she gets used to it all when she starts up at daycare. She does well with it, but I don't think she knows when she's exactly full yet as sometimes it comes back up. During the day, she stays awake from a half hour to a couple hours at a time. I wish it was all without crying, but that's not always the case. When she is just chillin', she's very observant and watches all that's going on around her. Now that she's almost 6 weeks old, she really has more of the Tidd features than the Tiemens features. Anna and Isabella look like sisters, but still look so different from eachother. Not only that, but they have such different personalities. Crazy how we can tell that already! In the last few days, she's really started to smile a lot more - not just when she sleeps with her cute little half smirk. She has the cutest little dimples too - wasn't sure if it was on both sides b/c for so long she only smiled on her right side. Hehe. She's definitely a blessing to our family and we're so excited to see these 2 grow up together. I don't know what a sisterly bond is as I only grew up with my brother (not that it's bad, bud!), but I'm excited for them to have eachother.

Anna is doing well. It's truely been an experience and a joy to be home with her. There have been moments (ok, maybe days) where it's been very trying with her, but I've learned a lot about being a parent with her. She's a big help when Izzy's crying and gives her everything that would comfort her: her pipe, blankets, animals and even books. I know deep down Izzy appreciates it. :) She's learning gentle and getting better at it with her. She doesn't get as angry with me when I have to feed Izzy or pay more attention to her for awhile. Thanks to Aunt Sheila, we've been learning a few baby signs, like please (rubs her tummy), hot (blows 3 times) when we say hot and even when her food is hot, down (points down), dirty pants (pats her butt) - this works only if I say it, but she still knows how to do it and all done (puts her palm up). She knows and loves the Zoophonics book Aunt Sheila book together for her. It has animals, fun sounds and actions. She knows where most of her body parts are. She says "yuck", "da" for dance when we read our I Hope You Dance book and puts her hand up in the air like I do when we read/sing the book. What I've learned and she's enjoyed, is instead of trying to make her play with her toys or read books, is include her in what I'm doing. I commented on Facebook a few weeks ago about what to do with a crabby toddler and one mom commented back to have them help you do laundry, cook/bake and I really thought about that after I about had it. What a difference that makes! Not only did she enjoy being apart of doing big people stuff, I really enjoyed that time I could spend with her and was able to get a few things done around the house. It's so simple and instead of fighting with her to let me finish cleaning, I let her help me sort laundry on our bed, she helped me dust, clean out the pantry and we even baked cookies together yesterday! It's been so much easier being at home with the both of them since then.

Now that I've figured this out (for now anyway), she heads back to daycare full time on Monday as they only allow 6 weeks maternity. I'm looking forward to only have Izzy around only b/c I have some things I'd like to catch up on before I head back to work and she enjoys the attention and socialization daycare brings.

Gary and I are doing well. As you can see from the above, these 2 keep us on our toes. We don't have a ton of free time right now, but we try to make it count when we do. We get out the house b/c it's still winter here in Michigan, even if it's to window shop at the mall. We're very very ready for spring, so we can take walks and let Anna run off some energy! I'm trying to be more proactive on having dinner plans ready so when I go back to work, we don't have to wait so long to make something and eat each night. We'd rather play with Anna for a couple hours than cook and clean before she goes to bed each night. I've been doing a little baking, some much needed cleaning and for the next 2 weeks, some much needed computer work personally and for our side work. Gary's been keeping busy at work with various projects that don't really have an end. Job security is all we care about anyway. :) I head back to work in a couple weeks. Should be another interesting adjustment.

Well the toddler is crying to get up from the nap she didn't take. Oye. :)

Love to you all,
Gary, Christie, Anna and Izzy

I tried videoing Anna holding the phone between her shoulder and her ear like we do. Instead I ran around the house chasing a toddler. Funny stuff.

She just couldn't stay awake but she managed a few smiles for the camera. Unfortunetly, she threw up right after I videoed this. Poor girl!

Week Three: 2 under 2

Whew. We made it. Like I said in the last blog, we ended the previous week with Anna throwing up. We left for Chicago on Saturday morning with no flu in sight and had a great weekend. Sunday night, we headed to our neighbors house for a Super Bowl party and kept Anna up pretty late - about 10-10:30. She had a great time and managed a way to "hide" from their large dog, Lucy. She would crouch down on the ground in hopes that she became invisable. It was quite funny.

Monday came and Anna slept until 11:30 till I pretty much woke her up. I got her dressed and brought her downstairs. I put her on the couch b/c she still seemed sleepy, she got mad, got down and fell asleep at my feet for another hour and a half. Once I woke her up, I put her in her highchair to eat lunch. She didn't seem interested in anything I gave her, so I got her out and put her back on the couch. I video taped her b/c she was falling asleep sitting up but she knew the camera was there, so she was trying to smile for the camera at the same time of falling asleep. So funny. Well, I got up to put something away, heard her cough twice and came back to check on her and found that she threw up again. Poor girl. Back to the tub, everything in the wash and the couch cleaned up. After that day, she's been fine. I found out there was a virus going around where you threw up one day, a few days would go by and you'd throw up again and it would be done.

This brings me to Wednesday. Well, Tuesday was filled with a toddler that was feeling just fine and acting quite crabby. I was about done that day. Now on to Wednesday. Gary came home early from work b/c he felt queasy. He slept most of the day and was feeling better towards the end of the night. I wanted to join in the fun and started feeling sick that night. After I fed Izzy that night, I had a date with the toilet. Yuck!

Thursday I wasn't sure how I felt, but as the morning went on, I felt fine again. So I headed out to tear it up at Babies R Us for a few things for Izzy. She loves to be held and we can't hold her all the time, so the next best thing.... a sling! She loves it! She's in the fetal position, being cuddled, close to mom or dad and just hangs out or sleeps in it. Perfect! We also thought she liked white noise, so I bought a noise machine. Not sure if that's helping at all since we found the key to getting Izzy to sleep 5-7 hours at night. Keeping her awake more often! We did that with a purpose the other night and she slept for 8 hours! Last night was 6 hours, but I'll take it! I picked up a few other things too. It was just nice to browse the store and I didn't buy any clothes! Sheila was able to come and take care of Anna while I ran errands. They both had a great time! Unfortunetly, Sheila got the flu we all had only worse. Sorry Sheila!

Last weekend was nice. The weather was beautiful and we were able to give Izzy her first walk outside! Anna also loved getting out of the house. We had our friends, Marc and Nisi over with their 2 kids for dinner. Nisi cooked us all a wonderful meal and the kids had a great time playing! Thanks again, guys!

I believe when Anna was about Izzy's age, I posted about her not pooping. Well, here's one for Izzy. She pooped like a champ when we were first home, now we're going 5-7 days without one! Looks like we need to call the doctor to see if we should give her anything for it. I tried gas drops b/c she farted like a champ, but never pooped. So we might be doing prune juice again!

We're all back to good health again. We're figuring out what to do with Izzy for sleeping and Anna is dealing with having Izzy around a lot better. I'm also figuring out how to prepare for Anna while I can't pay too much attention to her. I'm also learning how to not get so upset with her if she's doing something that may not be the best thing for her to do, but it's not hurting her. Like the other day, I was feeding Izzy, Gary left for awhile and one of the pantry doors was left open. So Anna started to bring me spice bottles, one at a time. At first, I was like, I don't need anymore honey, just leave them alone. Right. They kept coming. Good thing only one was opened a little to allow for some garlic salt to escape. The rest were fine and she had a blast stacking them on each other for 15 minutes! Patience. That's what I've been praying for. It's helped a lot and we had a great day together today.

So at week 3, we're not doing half bad. I do have a bigger respect for stay at home moms of toddlers. They know how to try your patience, but in the same right. It's a challenge to figure out how to deal with them where you both can be happy. :)

Hope everyone enjoyed the balmy weather this weekend, tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer! Oh yeah, pictures! Here's an updated photo album of the girls:

Anna Banana
Baby Bella

Love,
Gary, Christie, Booger and Izzy