Growing Up!

What a difference a week makes! Starting on her 1st birthday, Lauren has really started growing up! She started walking (I mean really walking, not just a few steps) this past Sunday and has been unstoppable ever since. She started signing more (now signs milk, more, all done, please, thank you) and has been saying more and more words! She went from my little baby girl to my one year old (I'm very hesitant to use the word, but here it goes) toddler!
Her spoken words include

• Ady
• Mom/Mommy
• Dad/Daddy
• Hi
• Baby
• Please
• Up/Uppie
• Me
• Mine
• Tickle
• Lollipop

And she's working on "more" and "thank you." It's SOOOO cute because she's still learning and it sounds like her tongue's too big for her mouth sometimes and so the words come out kind of funny... my favourite being "pleash" (please). Ah... she's just the cutest!
If you ask her where her baby is she'll look around for it and then go get it, give it a hug, and say "baby." It might be the cutest thing you've ever seen!
The other week Heather taught Adelyn a pre-school poem, where you open and shut your hands, clap them, walk them up to your mouth, etc. And while Ady picked it up instantly and can recite it anytime (quelle surprise!), what was even more impressive is that after seeing the poem only a couple times Lauren was able to do the actions when Andrew's mom recited the poem later that day! So now if you start the first line of the poem she'll drop what's in her hands and do it all. We now officially have two smart little girls on our hands!

Her Halloween birthday party was great! All the kids looked so cute in their costumes and they seemed to really like my pumpkin cake and decorating the pumpkins. Her birthday parties for the next few years are going to be so easy to plan/decorate if we always make them around Halloween. Lucky me!

She got some really neat things for her birthday; a baby, a stroller, a sign for her room, some books, some puzzles and little toys- all of which she loved. It was a good birthday weekend had by all!

Well, had by most. While Adelyn did have a good time (since her friends were there too), she definitely was feeling jealous about all the attention Lauren was getting. At one point she even said to me she didn't want to be my big girl anymore, she wanted to be Lauren. It absolutely broke my heart and made me cry immediately. It's been hard on Ady ever since I started back at work and then a Lauren-focused weekend made it even tougher. So Andrew and I are really trying hard to give Adelyn lots of positive attention and spend some quality (not always quantity) time with her one-on-one so she remembers she's loved and feels important.

Ady's getting even more independent as every day passes. She's doing really well with the whole potty thing, can undress herself very easily and is even dressing herself (which is huge!). She loves to play with her babies and with kitchen toys and loves helping me bake. She's such a sweetheart, is so smart and adorable. While she is equally as sour and she is sweet, and can be a challenge sometimes, she sure makes everyday worth getting out of bed for!

And Lauren agrees- she's definitely Ady's biggest fan! She gets excited when she gets to play with Adelyn's dolls and even says "Ady baby" when she hugs it and her eyes light right up if she hears Adelyn wake up from a nap. She starts walking to her room and says "Ady!" "Ady!"- she just can't wait to see her! It melts my heart to see the love between the two of them!

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm going to try and upload some pictures now so hopefully I can add some to the blog today!

Cheers,
A, M, a & l

Lolo Turns One!

Our baby girl is one! Wow! What an amazing year it has been!!! (And how fast it's gone by!). One year ago (almost exactly... it's 10:21 and she was born at 10:51) today little Lauren Alexandra graced us with her presence. How blessed we felt then and how overwhelmingly joyful we are now to have her as a part of our family!

2 weeks old

She's such a little sweet heart; so mild mannered and calm and lovely. She still loves to snuggle and be held; gives great (yet slobbery) kisses and has the most beautiful smile. She's fun and smart and curious and adorable; she's simply wonderful!

We spent the day today at the Aquarium (as we did for Adelyn's first birthday) and had a good time. Lauren was really enamored with all the fish and loved to stand at the glass watching them. She liked seeing all the cool animals, loved watching Adelyn interact with Daddy and the animals and was her usual cheerful self.
After a long drive home (Vancouver traffic is getting worse and worse!) we had a fun pancake dinner before having cupcakes and ice-cream with Grandma Willis. While Lauren was somewhat interested in the cupcake, she was VERY impressed with the ice-cream! I couldn't feed it to her fast enough!
She got more cuddles and playtime after her birthday cupcakes before going to bed.
Andrew has the day off tomorrow so the three of them will spend the day together before her party on Sunday (Halloween) and then trick-or-treating later that night followed by a sleep over at
Grandma and Grandpa Willis'. Fun times!
As I say every time I post, we truly feel so blessed and happy to have the two beautiful daughters we have- we couldn't imagine (nor would we want to imagine) life without them.
We love you baby girls!

Happy First Birthday, Lauren!!!


A, M, a & l

Only One Week Left!

I can't believe how fast this past year has gone by. This time next week I'll be sitting at my desk, back at work and trying not to cry! My maternity leave officially ends this Friday (Oct. 9) and I'll be starting back at work on Tuesday morning. I'm working only three days a week, but it still feels like I'll be giving up every free moment with my kids! When I went back to work with Adelyn it wasn't as difficult because I was pregnant and so I knew I was only going back for seven months. This time I'm going back indefinitely... I don't like it! Maybe I should try and convince Andrew it's time for baby #3!
Our two babes are doing really well! Adelyn is a super star dancer; she loves everything about dance and has been watching the video of the year-end recital from last year and is teaching herself all the other dances! It's so cute- my favourite is when she sings "Little Bo Peep, Lost her sheep... and doesn't know where to find them!" in her soft, high little voice. Ah, it just melts me into a ball of mush. Her potty training is done! While she'll still have the odd accidents, diapers are so far gone! She still uses a pull up at bedtime, but is fine for naps and the rest of the day. We even went to the GV Zoo for our anniversary and she went the whole day (including two hour-long car rides) without incident! I'm so proud of her and happy for her! She's really growing up too; learning new phrases, doing "big-girl" activities like crafts and is a star on her run bike! She's outgrown all of her clothes, which spurred a recent trip down to Target (but who ever really needs an excuse to go down there?) but I still need to get her some new pants as she has a booty and has plumber-bum ALL the time! It's the cutest little plumber bum you've ever seen though! Adelyn is just so creative and fun and passionate I can't wait to see what the rest of her childhood years brings! She's already wanting to go to school... and preschool's already next year! It's crazy to think that school (of any level) is just around the corner. I guess what she says is true "I'm not a baby, Mom, I'm a big girl." Sniff, sniff... now I'm getting teary-eyed!
As for Lolo, our sweet, little, lovable baby Lolo... she's almost not a baby anymore! She's one in just a few short weeks already! She just doesn't seem like she's almost one, probably because by this age Adelyn was already walking and talking, not to mention eating! But Lauren is the happiest baby I've ever seen! She's so full of fun and wonder and longing to be like her big sister! It's just adorable to watch her follow Ady around. She'll even stand and "color" the coloring books if that's what Ady's doing. Or she'll sit and watch TV with Ady, if that's what Adelyn's doing. It's pretty cute and I imagine it's only going to get cuter as Lauren becomes older and more able to do the same things as Ady.
Having two girls is amazing; so much better than I ever could've expected and we're both so thankful and grateful to have the two precious babes that we do.
Man, this post is a lot sappier than normal... probably because I'm so bummed about going back to work! Anyway, I should get posting some pictures before I get distracted and never get around to it!

Cheers,
A, M, a & l

friends at the Apple Barn pumpkin patch

with my girls at the Apple Barn Pumpkin Patch

Lolo on the Pumpkin Scale- $6- what a steal!

the coolest jumpy pillow around!

Ady chasing bubbles at Jarad & Jenn's wedding

our (tired) family at the Koss wedding

Andrew's a champion baby-tosser!

Ady with the bride and groom

Wedding Season

Wow, next to the year we got married (with 11 weddings) this has been the busiest wedding season ever! We've been invited to a total of 8 weddings and have/are going to have participated in 5 of them! WOW!!!
Two weekends ago Andrew's sister Janice finally married her long-time boyfriend (and then long-time fiance) Justin! Our beautiful little Adelyn was one of the flower girls and Lauren dressed the part too for picture purposes! Lol.

Their wedding was beautiful; very elegant and classy and what's even more wonderful is the weather was PERFECT, despite forecasts calling for 90% chance of rain!
We now have a weekend off before Ady gets all dressed up again to be a flower girl for Jarad and Jenn's wedding (Andrew is best man in that one) and then we get a couple weeks "off" (we still attend a wedding in between) before I get to repay Danielle as her maid of honor. (or matron, but I prefer the term maid.) While I really do love weddings, and this year a lot of important people to us were the ones getting married, I am looking forward to November, when this year's wedding season is officially over!
What's crazier is, in the midst of all this wedding mayhem I have to return to work! Yes, it's been nearly a whole year off already! So while Lauren doesn't actually turn one until the end of October, I have to go back early because I left work early. I took off 1 1/2 weeks before my due date so I could spend some quality time with Adelyn before the baby came... but then the baby didn't come!!! So I was off for almost a MONTH before Lauren finally graced us with her presence... which is why my maternity leave runs out before her birthday. So for now I'm going back 3 days a week... Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (but with some days shuffled around since I have to accommodate Danielle's rehearsal dinner and day-before-wedding bridesmaid duties) and then will re-evaluate once Lindsay has her baby and will be that much busier!
I am looking forward to going back a couple days, it'll give me some time to organize my thoughts and get some stuff done that I just don't get done during the day (pay bills online, grocery shop, etc.) because I can accomplish SO MUCH on my hour-long lunch break when I don't have kids to tote with me!
As for said kids, Adelyn is back on track with potty training! She has been wearing underwear all day everyday since my birthday and is doing really well! She still has accidents, but is going for much longer stretches between pees and is really proud of herself for going on the potty. First thing every morning she wants to go potty so she can take off her pull-up and wear her princess "big girl" underwear. I'm so happy! Dance has started up for her again last week and (as usual) she's loving it! We watched the movie of her dance school's year-end recital last night and she spent the entire time standing trying to copy the moves of the other dancers! It was really impressive! She's still talking up a storm and constantly impresses us with her new catch phrases and sayings. She's a true delight and I'm so happy she's ours!
As for little Lolo, she's starting to talk up a storm too! She's just recently learned to say "Mom, mamamama" and has been saying "Dad" for a while. She can also (on occasion) say "Lollipop" and now says "Tickle tickle." She can also sign "up" and "all done" and just did "milk" this morning and responds to "eat" and "more" as well! We sure hope she has similar communication skills as Ady did, because it sure made life a lot easier to know what they wanted through words! Lauren's getting quicker and quicker with crawling and cruising around the house every day. She's super speedy on the stairs and likes to walk around the house with push-toys or the laundry basket! Just earlier today when we were outside she would crawl up the slide so she could "slide" (sort of) back down! She was having a blast! She's stood by herself very briefly. While she can, she'd rather just get back down to the floor where she knows she can get around no problem. I don't think walking's too far off for her; I'm pretty confident she could do it soon, it'll just be a matter of her deciding it's worth her while to try, since crawling's so fast!
Her diet is still leaving much to be desired... she's FINALLY taking formula through a bottle (albeit an expensive kind!) and will eat yogurt, rice cereal, crackers, cereal bars, zucchini loaf and muffins. So still no meat or veggies or even fruit... but it's a start, I guess! I sure hope she starts with the other foods though, I don't want her to only eat carbs forever! Lolo's sleeping routines have grown leaps and bounds since she's started taking formula as well! She has one or two naps a day and then sleeps from about 7 pm to 7 am waking usually only once and not until 4 am!!! I'll take it! I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that by the time I go back to work she'll be consistently sleeping through the night! Little Lauren's also a joy... full of energy and happiness, she's never upset (unless ready for bed) and is always so much fun to be around. She LOVES to play Peek-a-Boo, loves to be tickled and LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to do anything that Adelyn is doing. I sure hope they keep the great sisterly relationship they have now through their whole lives.
Anyway, that's it for now, Adelyn's just waking up for her nap, so I must go get her and run her to the potty! Enjoy the pictures!
Cheers,
A, M, a & l

the happy couple

the Godbout family

Justin & Janice with their flowergirls Adelyn and Brooke

Go, go, go

It seems like lately all I'm doing is getting ready, packing up the kids and going from one event or activity to the next. Being unable to sit-still for long periods of time (and going stir-crazy REALLY quickly!) this should be right up my alley. However, I'm starting to feel a little drained... and I feel like that's taking a toll on my kids :(

Anyway, last week Adelyn had dance camp and it was pretty good. She seemed to enjoy it (all the while doing her classic Ady "freeze" dancing [which is simply not moving]) and looked forward to seeing her friends and doing the crafts everyday. It was also nice for her to get a good hour of play time that wasn't with the darned TV in the background! I'm sooo trying to get away from having the TV on all-day (whether it's being watched or not) but it's hard when it's in reach and can be easily turned on whenever they want it to be.
Adelyn's also shown a REAL interest in wearing big-girl underwear. She has been fighting the pull-ups at every turn and really wants to wear her princess underwear. This is fabulous and I should be embracing this whole-heartedly. However, she still pees right through to the floor, sometimes not even reacting to it. And sadly, I go from 0 to 60 on the frustration scale INSTANTLY and I can't handle all the accidents and so she always ends up back in pull-ups. And to be fair, if we were staying home all day, she would be in underwear so that hopefully we'll finally get the hang of this potty-training thing, but again (refer to the title) we're always on the move. Sigh. One day soon, hopefully. Now it's all me, I have to commit to doing it, I just don't want to have an unhappy home again.

On my last post I completely forgot to mention that Lolo cut two teeth! She got her first on July 30th and the second two days later! It was a very promising time for me as I hoped it'd mean she'd start eating some food... but it didn't! She has been on a diet of ONLY vanilla yogurt and breast milk for a really long time and I was starting to worry about how I was going to go back to work with a baby who won't take a bottle and doesn't eat ANYTHING! So we went to the doctor on Wednesday and she said (since she's only gained a pound since May) that I needed to start "starving her out" so she has no choice but to eat. So it started that night... instead of her waking every couple hours through the night and me feeding her I was supposed to do nothing and let her cry. GULP... could I do that??? Well, I did, and it was painful! The poor little girl went to bed at 6:30 and then woke up around 9:00 p.m. She cried until about 11:00 and then fell asleep. She then woke again at 2:00 am, and while I did drift in and out, I don't think she stopped crying at all until I finally went into her room at 5:15 a.m. and fed her. I felt awful (and my boobs were HUGE!) but I knew it needed to be done.

That morning she had some yogurt for breakfast, some rice cereal for lunch and even a few tiny pieces of goldfish crackers for a snack. She was EATING!!! It was a miracle!!!

So, that night I put her to bed preparing for the worst again, but happy we saw results pretty quickly. Well, since that night she's been sleeping from 6:30ish until 5:30 a.m. the next morning, without waking!!!! WOW! I'm over-joyed!!! I've been getting up to feed her and then she'll sleep again until 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. Lucky me!!! I'm so proud and happy! She's also now quite fond of muffins made from Presidents Choice muffin mix and so I think I'll be buying those by the caseload!
Lauren's still cruising around the furniture like crazy, and is a fast little crawler and can even "sign" a couple things too (her own versions of "up" and "all done") and LOVES to clap and is very excited when she does!
She did have her first real accident the other night. Adelyn has discovered how to open the gate to the stairs and did so and then walked away and speedy little Lauren bolted for the opening and fell down the stairs!!! Luckily, Andrew was on the computer and got some weird feeling telling him to look over, so he was already looking at the stairs before Lauren started to fall and when she did, he was already jumping up to get her. So she only fell down a few stairs (before being rescued by Daddy the hero) and wasn't hurt at all, but it was still VERY scary!

And as for me, my lovely sister surprised me with a dinner out with some girlfriends on Saturday night for my birthday! I know my birthday's still over a week away, but we're so busy with weddings that there wasn't any time closer to the actual day. So she showed up at the house and took me up to the falls where Holli, Brittny, Jalene, Kendra and Sara were all waiting. We had a great dinner and a great time! It was the first time in YEARS I've done something for my birthday and I'm so happy it happened and I've been blessed with some great friends and an awesome sister!

Anyway, that's it for now!

Cheers,

A, M, a & l

Ah... Holidays!

We just concluded (well, a week ago) another week (plus a day) of our annual Island holiday and it was the best one yet! Again we found ourselves in a cabin (newly updated with new carpets and furniture!) at Pacific Playgrounds at Oyster River (Black Creek) on Vancouver island for some summer fun away from home.
We had some really rough weather last year (leading to a really grouchy me!) and I was dreading we'd encounter the same this year, but was pretty hopeful as we got closer to leaving home as it had been hot and sunny for the past couple weeks. WELL, it was an average of 36 degrees (on the water!!!) every single day there! Lucky for us our cabin's "yard" had some pretty decent shade, with only about 2 hours or so without a lot of good shade to hide in.
Both Adelyn and Lauren had a blast as we took full advantage of the "tot pool" (2 ft deep) to keep cool. Andrew's parents and siblings (sans Janice), Auntie Marge and Uncle Merv were there camping as per usual and then the Van Winkles came for the last 5 days to keep us company. So between our cabin, Jean and Joan's campsite, the pool, the field, the playground and the beach there was A LOT to do/see to keep us busy!

Ady's favorite part seems to have been the morning we spent at Saratoga Beach as she keeps mentioning the "ocean" and how she got to play there. Although I'm sure jumping into the pool (by herself!), playing on the playground, riding her run bike and chasing Andrew Van Winkle around would be close seconds.
Lolo is DEFINITELY a water baby! She also really enjoyed floating around in the tot pool (and in our blow up pool we brought for our "yard."), but more than that she just LOVED the beach! I let her kick her feet in the ocean and she quite enjoy it, so then I sat her down in it, thinking she'd splash a bit and then be done and just watch the other kids play. But no, she took off crawling around the beach and had the time of her life. She'd crawl into the water and sit and splash, then out of the water on to the beach. Then down the water/sand line towards the action of the other kids and then start all over again. She was truly in her glory! She did eat a bit of sand and wasn't too pleased about it, but didn't fuss at all, just made a funny face and kept going!

The girls shared a room in the cabin and that actually went pretty well. There were two times that we had to move Ady into our room at night and it wasn't because one's crying woke the other, it was because they were playing and laughing too much and weren't going to bed! It was SO cute!
It was also so stinkin' hot in the cabin at night that even with a fan, it was pretty uncomfortable to sleep. Poor Lolo wet her bed nearly every other night too, so that didn't add to the comfort level.

Lauren was also on Reactin during the trip after a recent ear infection led to antibiotics then Rosiola and then possibly Fifth Disease (and a pretty awful rash!) and so I had to try and shove Reactin down her throat every night to help keep the rash at bay. Thankfully that's over because it's hard enough trying to get a baby to take a syringe full of medicine, never mind one that doesn't like to eat ANYTHING!

Andrew seemed to have a good time on the trip too... he read a couple books, went golfing a couple times (once with me! Yay for finally using my golf clubs!), sat in the river drinking beer, beat his dad quite handily in Crib and enjoyed soaking up the sun.
I had a great time as well... I loved the beach with my girlies, loved "swimming" in the tot pool with them, enjoyed my daily walks, enjoyed the company and, of course, the sun! I got a pretty wicked leg burn/tan too that made me look completely ridiculous in a bathing suit, but that's not important...

Anyway, although we had a fantastic trip, it's always good to be home and back into a more regular routine. We now start gearing up for part 2 of our wedding season (with one or more of our family members involved in Janice's, Jarad's and Danielle's weddings) and then (sniff, sniff) before I know it my maternity leave's over and it's back to work I go!

Man, time flies... I'd better stop to smell the roses before I run out of time!

Cheers,

A, M, a & l

PS- I'll post pics from the trip soon... Ady's on my lap right now and is impatient, so I definitely don't have time to post them now.

On the Move!

Woohoo! I just made it under a month since my last post, getting better!

Anyway, life in the Godbout household is great, but very busy! Where to start...

Adelyn has now completed her first "year" of

dance, with the year-end recital happening on the 19th and 20th of June. She was soooo excited to

be doing

"Bunny Fou-Fou" and was jumping around and squealing with delight backstage, she just

couldn't wait to get on. Then came performance time and she stood there. Completely still... and just watched everyone else. While I was kind of disappointed (though not surprised) it was still SO cute to see her up there in her little dance costume

e and bunny ears! When we got home she did the whole routine over and over and over again, chalked full of enthusiasm, but then the next day the "performance" was exactly the same; Ady just standing there. It was cute though. She still asks to go to dance class and doesn't like the fact that it's over for the summer. She is enrolled in a Dora Dance camp in August with a lot of her friends, so hopefully that will get her all geared up and excited for dance again just in time to go back in September.

What else is new with Adelyn? Well, not much really. She's still a ball full of energy, says the cutest most adorable things ever and is pretty sweet. She's still not fully interested in potty training, but will surprise us out of the blue and tell us she has to go pee, so I guess we're making progress. We've been going to the park lately, which she loves and have been playing outside a lot, which she also loves. And she's also become quite interested in the doctor (after watching

"Elmo Visits the Doctor" and is asking me to tell her "Exactly you're feeling" and then listening to my lungs, saying "Breathe deep. Ok, Breathe deep." So I'm currently on the look out for a doctors bag set for her to play with. A future doctor in the family couldn't be bad, right?

And for little Lolo, she STILL doesn't have any teeth, but she's crawling! In fact, she's racing!

She just won't stay still now. She's constantly on the move and really surprises me with how fast she can go. She's also just started pulling herself up on to things and slowly cruising along a small section of furniture. It doesn't seem like full-on cruising (and dare I say walking?) is far off! I actually wouldn't mind if she were cruising fully by the time we go on holidays at the end of the month, so that she isn't constantly crawling on the gravel or dirty cabin floors!Lauren's sleeping was getting really good and has just recently gone downhill again. But I'm letting her cry it out a bit more, because I know she can sleep well (because she has!), so hopefully she gets back on track soon because I can't keep getting up all night long! Maybe now she really is getting teeth?

For being soooo darned active now, Lauren surprises me by still not wanting anything to do with actual food. She does eat rice cereal (and loves it!) at dinner, and on occasion at breakfast (if she feels like it), but flat out refuses to eat anything of nutritional value! I've tried (all homemade): pears, applesauce, carrots, poached chicken, yams, sweet potatoes, bananas, avocado and squash and she glues her lips together and looks at me like I've offended her when I try to get her to eat it! I've also tried some store-bought food, (carrots, mixed veggies, beans, yams) thinking maybe she won't eat my homemade stuff because I can't puree it as thin as the store-bought stuff, but she won't take that either. I'm wondering if I should start to be concerned? As a last resort I've tried giving her the "Star Puffs"that Adelyn used to DEVOUR (and still does) as they're sweet and finger foods and melt in your mouth, but even those she spits out and looks disgusted! So I'm at a loss. She has managed to sneak and eat 1/4 of a business card, 1/8 of a napkin and a sticker so I know she likes fiber anyway!

Other than crawling, pulling herself up and not-eating, not much else is new with Lolo. She's still very lovely, LOVES to wave and can't get enough of her big sister!

I'm a very lucky mom to have such wonderful little ladies!

In Andrew/Melissa news... Andrew's off on no-impact rest for a minimum of 8 weeks while a specialist tries to figure out what the heck is wrong with his knees. We've just finished the basement (YAY!!!) and are LOVING having some extra space. We still need to touch-up paint,

put on the light switch cover plates and do some detail finishing, but it's totally live able down

there and we love it! Andrew was in Vanni's wedding party a couple weeks ago and so we had Vanni, Jarad and Lido (Vanni's brother) all stay over the night before and they broke in the spare room and bathroom full us, giving us rave reviews! Lol.

And for me, I've officially (as of July 1st) taken over my friend, Kendra's, bow business,

Sarah's Bowtique. I'm loving it so much, have so many ideas and am so excited about it, it's great!

The problem is, I think I used to be one of her biggest customers, so business isn't as booming anymore! Lol. No, it's doing well, and I only expect it to do better!

K, that's it for now. I'm planning on posting Ady's dance recital video, but will do that another day- soon!

Cheers,

A, M, a & l

Almost There!

Life keeps zipping right past us and again I can't believe how much time has passed since my last post. Maybe I should frame this blog as a monthly update so I don't keep disappointing myself!

Life continues to be good; we've had some phenomenal weather lately which has kept us mostly outdoors and soaking up the sunshine. Luckily the kids love it outside as much as I do so it's easy to spend the entire day out there. And luckily we do have that good 'ol heat pump (and a/c) so it hasn't been hard to sleep at all! If anything, I've been finding it too cold inside! But I'd better not say that aloud!

Adelyn's very happy that summer is unofficially here. She's in her glory in "Daddy's backyard" or playing in the water somewhere and even going up to the lake. We went up for the first time (ever for Ady!) last week and she had a blast! I must say though, taking two kids to any water source by yourself (I mean without another adult specifically to help you) is a challenge! It's a fun one though!

Adelyn's dance season is wrapping up shortly too- her first ever recital happens a week from today! She and the five other little mini-dancers will be performing "Little Bunny Fou-Fou" complete with bunny ears and tail and a little bow-tie. Ady's got the dance pretty much nailed down as she does it at home for me all the time, but if anyone (Andrew included) tries to get a performance she just stands there. So I'm pretty sure she'll just be standing there up on stage, but at least she'll look so stinkin' cute everyone will think it's just adorable!

We've really been noticing lately with Adelyn that she's no longer our little baby. She's using the potty more and more, she's singing and dancing all the time, she's using her imagination to play with her dolls and read books and she's just getting so big we've finally had to admit she's our little girl and not our baby! Luckily, we still have Lauren to fill our baby needs!

As for Lauren, she's the one that's "almost there" in a few categories. First she's getting pretty close to crawling! She's up on all fours and can bring in her knees but just looks at her hands willing them to move, but doesn't have much luck! So she usually spreads back out onto her tummy and ends up scooting backwards! She's soooo frustrated and just cries and cries as she goes further away from her target- it's so sad to watch! But in the process of scooting backwards she's learned to get into a sitting position from on her tummy, so that's good news!

She's still in love with her big sis and could watch her jump around and sing and dance and play all day long! If you ever want to get a giant smile or a really good belly laugh out of Lauren, just call Adelyn in to entertain her for a few seconds. It makes me grin from ear to ear when I see them so happy and thrilled with each other!
Another thing I hope is almost here for Lauren is a tooth! She's been pretty miserable the last few days; not sleeping well at night, not eating dinner, having a ton of poopy diapers and constantly needing me to hold her. I can't figure out what changed, so I'm hoping she's got a tooth or two lurking below the surface. Any time you feel like popping through, Mr. Tooth, that would be fine with me!

The solid-food adventure with Lauren is a pretty slow-moving one! She still really doesn't want anything but rice cereal! I've tried carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, bananas, avocado, apple sauce, pears, green beans and a bit of chicken and so far she only has really like the banana and carrots, but even then just sorta tastes them with her tongue, but won't actually take a spoonful! It's getting kind of frustrating because I feel like she'll never eat anything other than rice cereal for the rest of her life! She won't even entertain the idea of sucking on a Mum-Mum cracker! Crazy kid- Adelyn would eat ANYTHING, so this is a huge twist for me!

Both our girls are so very lovely that even with our little challenges we couldn't imagine them being any more wonderful than they are! How is it that people claim they don't want kids? They don't know what they're missing!

Anyway, that's it for now... I'll try and add a few pictures for your enjoyment before the girlies wake up from their naps.

at the lake with friend Abby

our baby girl!

swimming at a friends pool

Cheers,

A, M, a & l

Hmm...

What to write, what to write? I'm (obviously) getting quite bad at the whole blog-writing thing, but I thought I'd try my luck at posting while all three kids (I'm watching Jordyn) are napping.

Not an incredible amount is new in our lives right now; we're still working on getting the basement finished (we need to get our butts in gear and finish the painting, because then all the rest can get done!), dreaming and planning out our backyard, snapping photos of our cute little girls and trying to get some sleep!

Ok, so I just stopped typing and took what I meant to be a "2-minute break" and it turned into a 2 WEEK break. Yikes.

Anyway, aside from being quite busy with a whole lot of mundane nothings, our lives are quite wonderful! Our two little girls are so precious, we usually lay in bed every night and just say over and over again how much we love them and how wonderful they are!

Adelyn has discovered her imagination! Or at least, we've discovered her imagination. She's coming up with all these great stories and sayings and just the other night she was roaring and acting like a dinosaur (after watching Diego and the Dinosaurs) and I said to her "Adelyn, are you pretending to be a dinosaur?" to which she roared and said "I AM a dinosaur!" and kept on playing. It was so funny!

Her musical and auditory memory is out of this world! I've been really noticing lately that anything that's said (as in poem form or in lines in a TV show/movie) or sung is brought back up again hours later nearly perfectly! She watched (for the first time ever) a new potty-training movie with kids who sing "Oh, oh, oh, I gotta go." and do this little dance move. Well, the next morning she starts singing and dancing the potty-dance song! It was crazy as she'd only seen it once! Very impressive!

She's still very much in love with her "little sis" and is pretty happy with herself when she makes Lauren happy and all excited! It's pretty cute and I'm so blessed to have a "big sis" on my hands who adores her "little sis" so much!

Adelyn's behaviour (listening skills, tantrums, etc. etc.) has improved dramatically since our parenting course ended as well. We've REALLY focused on changing the way we speak and interact with her and have seen great changes. Things (of course) are still not perfect, but she's morphing back into the little angel we used to have! And I can only imagine (and hope) that things will continue to get better and better!

As for little Lolo, she's the immunization champ! She got her 6-month shots last week and again (as she did at her 4-month shots) SMILED after getting them! She's just the best little baby you could ask for! She's just under 18 lbs (90%) and 25 " long (75%) so she's growing quite nicely and while she's still a "big" baby, she's so small compared to how Adelyn was that we're just loving our tiny little baby girl!

She's now sitting up completely on her own and very securely (since about 5 1/2 months) and can roll over no problem, although she's yet to do it in front of us and seems to refuse to! She's been eating rice cereal for dinner every night and has tried yams and bananas, but doesn't seem to particularly enjoy either. And she's learning how to use a cup as well! Every morning and afternoon she gets a sippy cup of water so she can learn how to drink from it and is doing pretty well! I didn't introduce a cup to Adelyn until much later, but seeing as how Lauren would rather starve herself than take a bottle I figured I needed to try another way of getting milk into her! So it's going pretty well so far, so I don't think it'll be a problem for her to take milk that way by this time next month when we'll be at a wedding and she'll be with a sitter. Fingers crossed anyways!

As far as sleeping goes, she's getting MUCH better! Waking once (or maybe twice) a night as opposed to every few hours every single night, and she's also learning to self-soothe, so sometimes she will wake up more but will put herself back to sleep.

Anyway, I know I say it a lot, but we love our little girls so much and couldn't imagine (nor would we want to) life without them! We're truly blessed!

Here are some more pictures for your enjoyment...

Lolo loves the swings just a little bit! (taken at the GV Zoo)

Lolo's first experience with rice cereal. Not the biggest hit.

"Tulip Mania" tulip farm for cancer research

Grandma and Grandpa Willis got a Bouncy House for the backyard. 

The girls (obviously) love it!

Cheers,

A, M, a & l