Bathroom Humor

What do you notice here? Aside from the orange socks and pink shoes we have to potties with two little ladies sitting on them. Ready or not, here we go...............

Emily asked to use the potty for the first time this weekend. It resulted in absolutely nothing but a lot of laughs for everyone involved. She and Ellery kept getting up to check every two seconds for something. This could have gone on all weekend. Then on Wednesday Emily asked to use the potty again and peed. What?? Then she did it again and again. Tonight before baths she did it again. She'd go a little, dump it out in the toilet, go a little more. Somehow she's made the connection and I had no idea it was even coming our way. I still think potty training is a little ways away, but as I said before Ready or not here we go.....................

Emily is all smiles!

Who knew potty time was so much fun?

And in sticking with the bathroom humor I had an "OH CRAP" moment last night as I watched Ellery fight going to bed. As I was telling her all the reason why she should go to sleep and how mommy wished she could go to bed at 7:30 she threw her leg over one side of the crib and used her arms to push her body up to balance on top of the crib. All that was left is for her to drop/fall over the side and she'd be a free woman. Oh no....she can escape the confines of her crib. So now it looks like we'll be converting her crib to a toddler bed which really makes me nervous. Now she will be able to get out of bed on her own and wreck havoc on any and everything. This growing up stuff is hard! I'm not ready for potty trained, toddler bed sleeping, "move tv mommy" saying, kiddos.

We've Moved

It's official! We are now Tigard residents. We moved our stuff in a week ago but just this last Thursday was our first night staying here. Aside from the endless mounds of rubbermaid bins and black garbage bags (my 2 fav packing receptacles) we are getting settled in. Things are slowly coming together, but wow....adding two kids to the mix definitely makes a move much harder and much bigger. Emily & Ellery have so much stuff it's ridiculous. The neighborhood is wonderful, very kid friendly, park across the street, and super nice neighbors. The girls have enjoyed a few park trips and stroller rides already and we are all looking forward to many many more.

Sisterly Love

.............And a little bit of corn meal paste...............

Ellery & Emily

Emily & Ellery

Emily's Heart Follow Up

Today we took Emily into Doernbecher Children's Hospital for her annual heart follow up. If you recall Emily still has a PDA which is an extra heart valve that should have closed after birth. It's common for it to take a little extra time to close for preemies and we thought both girls had closed on their own. However at our 6month check up our ped found that Emily still had a PDA and could hear a murmur. We've just been monitoring it with an Echo every year. Normally for Echo's they sedate young children but we've lucked out now three times and have been able to get Miss Emmalina to cooperate (it was touch and go though!!). The tech tried to get out of it today, but Andy and I were able to show her that Emily would be fine. Emily was a star and sat still for the 20 minutes.

Then we met with the Cardiologist who decided now is the time to do something about the PDA. The procedure is called Cardiac Catheterization. I'm nervous but when I think about the fact that the alternative would have been surgery when she was still in the NICU and barely 3lbs and would have required a ventilator....I'm all for this. I'm going to wait to schedule it for the summer when cold & flu season is somewhat at bay. In order to have the least amount of complications we need a healthy girl!

E & E's 2nd Birthday Party

The girls turned two a few weeks ago, but because this month has been so busy with moving and temporary moves we decided we would wait until the end of the month to celebrate. I also decided after throwing a party last year and making all of food, decorating, cleaning up before and after, and being party host.....that was enough for me. I've known all year long I wanted the girls 2nd birthday to be held somewhere other than home. We chose the Play Boutique in Lake Oswego. Our girlfriend Avery had her first birthday here back in October and E & E had a blast. The people at the Play Boutique are wonderful and did such an amazing job. The girls had so much fun and loved every minute of playing. We chose a Minnie & Mickey mouse theme in honor of the girls latest obsession. February is the perfect time of year for a red & hot pink color scheme - yea for Valentines day!

Emily answering the door...

Ellery

Ellery....not quite sure what she's doing

I could hear Ellery saying "hello?"

Ellery

Emily going for it!
Family Pic!!! We never take enough of these!

Emilina answering yet another door...

"Cheese"

Annual Grandparents picture.

Party's over ;(

E & E's First Haircut!

The mullet look finally got to be too much for me, so we bit the bullet and took the girls in for their first haircuts. They surprised me and actually sat in the chair...ok hummer, and sat still the whole time. They did have the dear in headlights look and Ellery kept checking herself out in the mirror, but they didn't cry and did everything the hair dresser asked. While they only cut a minuscule amount of hair off the end result is much cleaner and my babies look so much older!!

Emily picking out her moral support - a rubber ducky and a care bear.

Emily - All done!

Ellery - "what is going on?"

Ellery is scared to move

Ellery's moral support - "Care Bear get me through this"

What a big girl!

Lincoln City Ladies

Two weeks ago we loaded E&E up in the car to head to Lincoln City for a long weekend with their best girlfriend Avery and her parents. They still weren't feeling great so I was really nervous about how the trip would go. Of course, they fell asleep just 10 minutes before we arrived. Emily woke up happy and Ellery woke up very angry. Fortunately they went back to bed fairly easily. The next morning both girls were happy and smiling and had lots of energy! YEAH!! The antibiotics finally kicked in! Ellery loved the beach on Friday but didn't like it on Saturday. Emily just wanted to run around and draw in the sand. We all had a great weekend away and the weather was fabulous!

Ellery & Emily having a snack at the beach
Daddy and his girls taking a walk

Family!!!

Avery + Emily + Ellery = Best Buddies!!

Ellery

Em & Mommy

Ellery

Emily

2 Year Well (Sick) Baby Appointments

Yesterday we went in for the girls 2 year well baby check ups. The moment our name was called and we started to walk the hall down to the exam room Emily started to yell "no, no, no" and "bye-bye". Looks like we can't fool them anymore. Both girls were upset by the time we made it into the exam room and they got increasingly angry for the next 45 minutes. Boy was that fun. The good news is that Emily weighs 22.3lbs and Ellery is 24.9lbs. The bad news is now two days after her last check Ellery has an ear infection and a nasty throat thingy. Emily's new antibiotics finally seem to be working...kind of. Hopefully they kick in very soon for both girls, these last few weeks have been brutal. Aside from the normal sickness stuff going around right now, the girls are healthy and getting bigger. The Dr was very pleased - although it was hard to hear over the yelling of E&E.

Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Girls

Can't believe it. E & E are two today?? Wow. Just amazing. Too bad they don't feel that great. Emily has had a cold and by the time I took her to the Dr she had a pretty raging ear infection. She started antibiotics on Thursday but she and her sister were both monsters over the weekend. I took her back to the Dr on Monday and the antibiotics hadn't cleared up the ear infection at all. So now we're on another one hoping that relief kicks in soon. Ellery's ears were clear, but boy is she an unhappy girl. We have their 2 year well baby apt tomorrow so we'll be able to make sure she still has clear ears. Fingers crossed that they both feel better before our trip to Lincoln City this weekend.

More updates tomorrow after well baby check up.

Oh, and we've moved out of our house. It officially is owned by someone else. Our new house will hopefully close in 2 weeks if all goes well. Keep your fingers crossed.

So Not Babies Anymore........

It's February?? This year is flying by already! Next week the girls are going to be 2 years old! How did this happen? I just watch in amazement as my little babies develop into to smart little girls. If you ask Ellery how old she is going to be she yells "two!" and all day long I hear "what dis?" "Who dat" "I do it" and "mommy, mommy, mommy.......". We've found out that they can sing their A,B,C's and will finish the word in each sentence of "On Top of Spaghetti". Amazing...just amazing to watch your children grow up.

El & Em Holding Hands

Music class at school

Ellery playing Peek a boo

Emily

Ellery pushing Emily

Dress up time at school. Emily

Ellery