What Cuties!

My Cuties

I just have to say that I have the cutest little girls and I can't get over how cute they have been this week which is also why last night was the worst night we've had in a while. Claire is getting a friction burn from her diaper and is very sensitive and cranky, while Shay has nothing wrong but decided she needed to wake up a lot in the night screaming bloody murder. It just takes a cute week to allow us to deal with terrible night sleeps I guess and they knew it since that was exactly what this week was. I now have a crawling baby that follows me around when I go from room to room, and a toddler that drags me all over the house. I officially can't go to the bathroom without my girls coming to watch me, I feel like a mom threshold has been crossed.

Claire

Some of this week as been great, but then the last few days have been awful because of the little boo-boos she has got around her waist. I want to take care of her and fix all her pain and it was so hard to have her cry in pain when it was new and fresh. Luckily once we bandaged it she felt a lot better and was able to play like normal, running around and making messes like the tornado she is. We still try to get outside even though this week has been getting colder and the leaves in our back yard are the girls favorite to play in and get in their cloths so they end up in my house. At least they are having fun and we get to enjoy the outdoors. I also had her fall asleep on me while we were cuddling on the couch! It was so sweet and I loved remembering how she used to sleep on me all the time.

Shay

My sweet little cruiser is so mobile (except when in a dress) that we have to be careful what we leave on the floor! She picks up so much of my hair and when she locks eyes one something new she hasn't seen will be line to that object, especially food. She loves trying the food we eat and in the past week has tried enchilada sauce, mac and cheese, ramen noodles, and popsicles. Her sharp two bottom teeth are lethal though so anyone willing to put their fingers close better be careful! She can pull herself to standing now and does so often to let me know she doesn't like when I sit up on the couch while she is on the floor. I can see her starting to lift up a foot while standing and think she is already starting to try to walk, or at least going to be walking with support soon. She still likes playing hide and seek with Claire and me and LOVES peekaboo or playing with wipes on the floor, ya know, normal baby games.

Chris

Work consumed three nights in a row and made us both excited for the Thanksgiving vacation we get this coming week. We will be going up to visit my parents and Chris is being a good husband and hasn't complained about having to drive for a long time or go to the cold of Montana. He is such a fun daddy and often lets the girls crawl all over him while he lays on the floor and often gets up in the night to help them when they cry. We have a good trade off with the girls because I'm a morning person and wake up with them unless I don't sleep well which means he gets the night shift. I think it is just easier for him to fall back asleep after waking up, but we make a great parenting team. Unfortunately, we still haven't heard about acceptance into PA school so we are still praying and hoping that soon they will send them out and we can start our plans.

Feeling More Normal

Lara

I'm doing my active recovery as often as I can, and trying to get be as active as possible before it snows and my walks will have to be super bundled up. We already put the girls in coats and hats and bring blankets, but I don't have to wear too many layers yet since I'm doing the pushing and walking. Chris comes as often as he is home, and it is so nice to go out and enjoy the outdoors together with our crazy toddler who likes to walk on her own and takes FOREVER. She explores everything and when we try to rush her she gets even more slow...and then gets mad if we try to put her back in the stroller.

Claire

I say this so often, but it becomes more apparent every day how adorable Claire is with her personality and attitude. She is so fun to watch learn and have opinions about everything even if those opinions start tantrums with yelling and melt downs with it. Her favorite food yesterday was popcorn and had it for breakfast and then asked for more after dinner, so when I told her she had to finish the previous one she ended up dumping it out in her hiding place thinking I wasn't going to know. Of course I noticed the bowl didn't have the little pieces that usually are at the bottom so I knew what she did and we went to where she dumped them out and I had her pick up what she could. I never thought I'd have such a fun time being a parent, and yes it is hard some days, but most the time I find myself enjoying it because she can be so funny sometimes when she is copying her little sister.

Shay

We now have two very mobile girls and it is so surprising to hear where Shay has gotten after leaving her in one room. She will follow her sister through the halls to their room and they played hide and seek a few times this week where Claire would go around the corner and Shay would peek around to see her again. She also loves looking in the full door mirrors that are on the closets of this apartment and plays with herself, giving a high-five and bumping her head against the mirror. Shay has been sleeping so well and having very regular naps mostly except for those rare occasions we are at church or Claire is sleeping in the room and she ends up falling asleep on daddy.

Chris

Still waiting to hear back from the school in California about our acceptance but getting ready for his other interview in Washington. I'm glad he doesn't hold a grudge that I ruined the first interview time with my hospital visit and they were able to invite him to another. Chris has been having some tennis elbow issues and we are starting a new work out program together that is very low weight for my recovering and to hopefully help his elbows. It is so nice to work out together again and have a more normal routine that includes the gym.

Crafting

I am really proud of a cute nativity I made for Chris's brother Steven who is serving a mission in Sierra Leone, Africa. I'm hoping he can use it for teaching about the birth of Christ during the Christmas season to people he is teaching and enjoys it himself. I put felt on cardboard for the background that is folded like a book to put the printed and laminated nativity characters on. There are little poems about each character on the back to read or scriptures from the story in Matthew and Luke that can be looked up to help tell the story. Once it was done, I told the story with Claire and she loved putting the characters on the board as I read about each one so I know kids will like it.

Recovering at Home

Recovering

My recovery from what I call my experience dying is going alright now that I'm home and able to active recovery. I went on a walk to the park which used to be so easy but now I had to go so slow and was breathing like I had been running a mile. I feel discouraged but my doctor assures me things will continue to get better, so I'm dutifully taking my antibiotics which are almost done. My mom was in town until Wednesday helping with the girls and house-ly duties that I don't have the energy for yet. She took me to my doctors appointment on Tuesday where the tubes that were getting the infection were finally taken out! It's nice to have Chris at home who has been helping with his medic knowledge dealing with them, but I'm glad they are gone cause they sucked. Now I get to sleep on my side and even though I'm not sleeping well, I feel so free without them.

Claire

This sweet little girl can be such a nice sister sometimes and loves to help feed Shay...and eat her food. She also can be really mean and sit on her so Shay can't play with her toys! I guess this is how sisters are and will be for their whole lives its funny to see it start so young and innocent. Claire knows when mommy uses a stern voice because she will usually drop what she stole or shouldn't have and run into her room. She has some hiding places that she goes to when she wants to get away with something like eating Shay's food but I know them all if I really need to find her, they are just fun to play with her with. She has some fun games these days including hide and seek, the floor is lava, and nap time, which includes putting her toys to sleep and pretending to be asleep and snoring.

Shay

Our little cruiser! She is so mobile and doesn't get mad about not being able to get things out of reach anymore because she just sets her sights on what she wants and goes. The only problem she has is when she has pants on and is on tile because it is too slippery for her to crawl right so she gets frustrated. It is pretty funny to watch her try to play with her sister and absolutely is annoyed when we go and play in another room without her. She wants to try anything she sees us eat and is fully open to eating the food Claire doesn't finish and leaves in reach, and even chews on her seat when we are trying to feed her. When we went for my first recovery walk to the park, she was able to try her first swing and seemed pleasantly surprised by how the world was moving for her.

Chris

What a great husband and daddy Chris has been through this whole awful appendicitis. He got up with the girls at night when things were weird for them not having mommy around and would wake up often and comforted them. I fell like I've spoiled him too much because he didn't know how to tell the girls cloths apart when he did the laundry and I found some of Claire's in Shay's stuff and vice versa. I'm so used to running the house the way I want it and not letting him help because I like it a certain way that when I was out of commission he had to deal with my organization. Another thing he got to do was shopping for our family! We learned early on that he doesn't handle shopping very well because his main goal is to get out as fast as possible and mine was to not forget anything we might need. I'm just glad he was able to cover for me while I was gone and now I can help out again.

Halloween and Home

Halloween

Our girls got to dress up, but we didn't get to do our full family outfit since I went back into the Hospital for another tube to get another pocket of infection out of me. Luckily, we think that was the last one because I'm starting to feel a lot better and I'm home now as of Friday. Chris and I had planned to be Belle and the Beast with our girls dressed up as Mrs. Potts and Chip because they get cute tutus. It was fun to see their outfits together even if we couldn't go anywhere and be a family outfit together. We didn't have anyone come to our door for trick or treating either and didn't go get any candy ourselves so no treats filling up our house!

Claire

She got a new toy that was from when I was a child! We call the rocking horse chocolate because he is dark brown and adorable and was made by my uncle when we were all growing up. The older nieces have had it for a while in Tennessee but they all decided they were too old and wanted Claire and Shay to get a turn playing with it. When I came home she likes playing with me and listened to my heart with her little stethoscope toy that she got a while ago. It was pretty adorable and she is so cute when she is showing how smart she is with the words she knows and communicating.

Shay

Our little 8 month old has a new tooth! She has a small one poking out from the bottom and has now crawled 5 steps at once as of this morning. She's done 2 and 3 before but she was determined to get to mom's IV that hangs down she crawled all the way to it. She can swing and roll around to get places but mostly just moves backwards and can sit herself up as she is wiggling around. Her naps happen pretty regularly now and its so nice to have a schedule and routine that we can predict with our girls especially with me not feeling so well. Unfortunately, she is fully weaned from breastfeeding because of all the antibiotics and other things going on with me, it was easier for her to have formula from now on and even though it is sad, its only a month sooner than Claire did.