Some mid-week girly Tidd action

Anna plays the Wii Anna-style

Anna loves playing on the slide at the mall - we go there just to play now, not just shop!

Izzy doing a little tummy time!

Grandpa taught Anna how to fold her arms - too cute!

Anna found some shipping tubes and decided to get silly.

Week 7 and 8: Two under 2

Click on the link below to see new pictures!

Pictures! Anna at 17 months and Izzy at 2 months

I didn't think having 2 kids would busy, but from the time we get up to the time we go to bed we're on the move! Since I do these in weeks, I should probably go in chronological order.

The weekend before I went back to work, I decided to try rock climbing at Calvin's new rock wall. I'd never done it before and I usually play it safe and not try those kinds of things. But Alex and Gary talked me in to it, so up I went. I went up about 3/4 of the way and knew that was enough for that day. It was quite intimidating, but I'd try it again. :)

Monday ended my maternity leave, so I made the trek back out to Spring Lake once again. So far, it's been going well in terms of all of us getting out the door with all 7 bags, yes 7. One for Anna, one for Izzy, my purse, my lunch bag, a personal bag, Gary's lunch bag and sometimes a plastic bag or backpack for Gary. That doesn't include a possible doll or blanket that Anna bring with her. I think we've got it down for now. Mornings go as follows: wake up between 5:30 and 6, Gary feeds Izzy while I start getting ready, then we both get ready, wake up Anna, Gary gets Anna ready, I get Izzy ready and finish up myself, Gary brings Anna down to have her "pre-breakfast" of milk and Cheerios he fills lunch bags, I bring Izzy down with any other paraphenalia from upstairs and help finish getting everything ready, finally we usually all walk out the door between 7:10-7:15. Not too shabby for the Tidd's who love to sleep. :)

Izzy's doing great! We had a little scare last week with some blood in her stool, but it ended up being a tear due to her bowel movements changing with having more formula. I'm sure you all wanted to know, but it's what happened. :) So I got that phone call before lunch. Then just before the end of the work day, I get another call from daycare about Anna having a 103 temp. So the next morning, Izzy went in to the doctor, all was good and Anna had a fever due to teething. So she spent the day with Grandpa that day. We found out that Izzy is already 10 pounds 2 ounces. She eats all the time! Anna didn't get to that weight until about 15 weeks and Izzy wasn't quite 9 yet. Can they be anymore different!?

With the temp, I stuck my finger in Anna's mouth to see what else was coming in. Well, we thought it was just 2 molars and the bottom two 2nd teeth. Come to find out, it's all 4 molars and the bottom teeth. No wonder! It took about a day and a half of Tylenol and Motrin to finally break the fever. And let me tell you, she's a joy to be around! Oye. Hehe. It's just a phase.... it's just a phase.... :) On a happier note with Anna, she's really come into her own in the last couple weeks. She will try saying just about anything we ask her to. She says "no" - I know, not good, "door", "kitty", "get down" which sounds more like "gee...doooo", she knows how to make the kitty sound and eats really well with a fork and spoon. She's still a sweetheart of a little girl giving hugs and kisses to us and her sister, she's just going through a rough patch with all these teeth invading her mouth. Poor girl.

Our basement is fully drywalled! It's feeling more and more like a room we'd all spend time in together. Now on to mudding, taping and painting! That was a major project getting to this point. Gary did a lot of wiring to account for his networking and cable needs....err....wants. :) He's very proud of it and it's what he's wanted to do for so long. I know we'll all enjoy it! Our next big project of the week is my craft show this weekend. My friend Jenn and I have collaborated our talents and created Blossom Studios, a photographer and design business. We'll be debuting it this weekend at our church, Fairhaven Ministries, hopefully booking sessions and selling some gifts! If you're in the west Michigan area, it's this Saturday, March 21 from 9-3 in the gym. Come and visit!

Otherwise we're all surviving and so excited that spring is pretty much here! Now comes garage cleaning, veggie garden creating, flower planting and painting! Oh the endless projects. :)

I hope this finds all of you well and gearing up for spring!
Love,
Gary, Christie, Boog and Iz-meister

Late Winter - Early Spring Videos and Pics!

The wee little one is wide awake!

Anna sharing kisses with Izzy.

Being a little chatty, but soon had enough!

Give it to Uncle Alex to make the child dizzy.

And now for some new pics of our recent happenings:

Month by Month

Anna at 16 Month and Izzy at 1 Month

A little bit of fun

Week Six and Seven (mostly): 2 under 2

So I'm a little behind on getting up last weeks events, so once again here's a combo post of last week and what's gone on this week.

Izzy: She's doing great! She's starting to smile and talk a lot these days. I remember this phase with Anna, being able to get her to smile at any moment. It was great to start to see her become more of an infant than a newborn and now we can see it with Izzy. She's a cuddler and loves to be held more than left by herself. We call her the needy one but who can resist cuddling up with a little baby? It's probably a little early yet, but I think shes going to keep her blue eyes, maybe a different shade than Anna. Her golden copper hair may remain, but again only time will tell that one. I was born blonde and am now about what Izzy is. She's sleeping through the night most of the time, definitely not as consistant as Anna was at her age. But they are definitely their own person. I think she's between 9 and 10 pounds by now. We go in 2 weeks from today for her first round of shots and see how she's growing. She starts up daycare on Monday as I go back to work. They are very excited to have her - it's nice to know the staff quite well and know your kids are in good, caring hands.

Anna: She's quite the independant soul but has so much love to give. She's starting to try and say so many words now and slowly she's getting there! Juice is her new word this week. She gives hugs and kisses all the time, hugs your legs, smiles real big with her teeth when you have the camera pointed at her, gives "big hugs" and puts her arms around your neck and squeezes, and gives hugs and kisses to Izzy (she gets mad when Izzy doesn't give her her lips to kiss). I'm now having to do her hair some mornings, she brushes her teeth with a big girl toothbrush and lets me help her. The clothes she wears makes her look so big, not to mention when you pick her up and hold her, she's so big! It's amazing how fast they grow in all respects in such a short amount of time. On the other side of things, she's bitten us a few times only to feel the pain in return. So that's quite infrequent. She kicks and puts her arms straight when we're holding her and she doesn't like whatever is going on at the moment. She know's what "come here" means, but only comes when it benefits her. Those cute little faces know a lot more than we know but as we all do it, selective understanding plagues her sometimes. She definitely keeps us on our toes and learning new ways to parent everyday. Despite the frustrating moments, we're so excited to see her learn everyday.

The Parents: I start work back up on Monday after an 8 week maternity leave. This leave has had its trials and tribulations figuring out how to parent 2 girls and how to get Izzy to sleep through the night. But I've also been able to take in a lot of side work and finish up some other projects that needed to be completed. I didn't get paid the last month of my leave, but it's been refreshing not to have to work from home - no deadlines to meet or issues to work through. I would love to stay home with the girls and do all the mommy stuff day in and day out, but bills need to be paid and I'm just thankful I have a job to do such a thing. Someday. Gary's doing well. Keeping busy at work and for that we are thankful as well. We've been trying to come up with a routine to keep up with the house, dinners but also make sure we have time to have fun and do family stuff. So we'll really put that in practice staring next week. With spring coming, hopefully it'll be a smooth transition. We're looking to get some more of the basement done in the next couple weeks. We always have some project going on. :)

I'll post more tomorrow with photos, videos and my newest Blurb book idea!

Goodnight!
GCAI