a surprise package

Our girls were surprised to get an early Valentine's Day package from Grandma Jane and Grandpa Bill yesterday. Emma Jane LOVES to get packages and she ooohs and aaahs at everything inside. Grandma Jane has been busy sewing and using her new embroidery machine. She made both Emma Jane and Vivi special Valentine blankets with matching beanbag frogs. She also made them cute matching pajama pants. Emma Jane was excited to get her very own Disney princess Tervis tumbler. Drinking out of it without spilling everywhere will be our next challenge! Emma Jane and her daddy were also happy to find icing cookies and heart-shaped marshmallows inside the box. Even though it was before dinner, I allowed Emma Jane to have a few marshmallows. She kindly shared some with her new beanbag frog. Of course, as always, Emma Jane liked playing with the box that everything came in. Vivian was just happy to witness all the excitement!

special visitor

Emma Jane's godmother came to see us last week. "Aunt" Scott got to see what a typical week is like for us. We took her to Emma Jane's preschool, ballet class, and our neighborhood playground. Vivian was showered with lots of love from Scott too! It was great to see one of my closest friends AND have an extra pair of hands to help me with these sweet girls.

come and play!

We had a great time visiting with friends this weekend. Emma Jane entertained Addie and Kaitlyn in our playroom on Saturday. Even Vivi got to have some fun with her buddy Evan. We love hanging out with our friends!

our girls

Vivian had her two month well-check last week. She weighed 9 pounds, 14 ounces and was 22 1/2 inches long. We are glad to see her gaining weight and almost up to 10 pounds. Although her weight gain is slow, she is still growing! The past few days she has been eating more and keeping more down. She is still in that newborn phase of eating, sleeping, eating, sleeping, but her periods of wakefulness are increasing. This girl does not like bath time! She fusses throughout her baths most of the time. Like most babies, she loves to be held and cuddled, but she is also content in her swing or the car seat. We enjoy the changes we see in our sweet Vivi each day.

bright-eyed and bushy-tailed



brrrr....bathtime is not fun!



hurry and dry me off!



Emma Jane continues to be a darling bis sister. She loves to put her face up to Vivi's because she thinks Vivi is kissing her. She constantly wants to tickle Vivi's toes or hold her hands. When she's not being the sugary sweet big sister, she is finding all kinds of things to keep her busy. Emma Jane loves crafts, especially painting. Oh the messes she can make while painting! Playing outside is still her first choice, but our time outside is limited due to the cold weather. Since we are stuck inside most of the time, we probably watch too much tv. Emma Jane's favorite shows are Olivia and Curious George. We love to watch her running around dancing and singing the theme songs to the shows. She'll even sit on the floor intently watching a show and then tell us all about it when it's over. Her enthusiasm is infectious and we love her spunk!

quiet and still...



...but not for long!

content

Our little Vivi has been struggling with acid reflux since the day she was born. Like most babies, her days revolve around feedings and sleep, but the feedings are much more challenging for her. She wakes up hungry and lets us know right away...nothing wrong with her lungs! She vigorously drinks her milk and gets really angry when you stop to burp her. We have to limit her intake since so much of what she drinks inevitably comes back up. This REALLY makes her mad! If she is able to keep down most of it after several minutes, we try to give her some more. It's heartwrenching to see her fight so hard to do something that should be so simple for her. Eventually she falls asleep, exhausted from it all. Finally seeing her content is such a relief. I love to see her sleeping so peacefully.

lil' miss fix it

Lately Emma Jane has been "fixing" things around the house with whatever "tools" she comes up with. We've watched her "fix" doorknobs with her crayons and she has "fixed" chairs with clothespins. To further encourage her engineering instincts, we got her a toy toolbox filled with tools. She has had lots of fun fixing all the "broken" things in our house.

on the mend

Emma Jane is feeling much better and actually got to play outside for the first time in days. She and Paul rode the plasma car up and down the cul-de-sac sidewalk over and over again. Every time they'd pass by our house Emma Jane would shout, "Wheee, Mom, look at me, look at me!!!" She has been sitting at her "very own table and chairs" for snack everyday and today she felt good enough to eat pretzels again. Her imagination has been at full speed. She sat in a diaper box today and decided that the handle slots on the sides were mail slots. She asked us for mail to put in and out of the slots. Something this simple will entertain this child for hours. Okay, we're talking about Emma Jane here, so nothing really entertains her for hours, but she did sit there for at least 15 minutes!

sniffling sisters

Our girls have been sick this week. Emma Jane has croup and had to get two steroid shots (one in each leg). The nurse gave her two stickers on her pants legs for being so brave. Even though she was pretty upset about those shots, it was nothing an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie couldn't cure when she got home. Vivi started sniffling this morning, so we hope it doesn't also turn into the croup. She has been in pretty good spirits today regardless of her snuffling. It's hard seeing your kids struggle with sickness, but it also reminds you how lucky you are to have healthy, happy children who just have to battle a cold or a stomach bug every now and then.

snowshoes

Emma Jane has such a wonderful imagination! She has been longingly gazing out the windows at the snow covered yard, but we haven't been able to take her outside since the beginning of the week because she has been sick. So, to show us that she was truly prepared to brave the snow, sick or not, she found herself a pair of "snowshoes" and told us she was ready to go outside. She actually found a pair of Paul's flip flops and decided they were big enough to be snowshoes. How she even knows what snowshoes are is beyond me....we can probably thank Dora or Diego for that!

let it snow...again!

We had more snow this week...between 4 and 5 inches! Unfortunately, Paul had to go to work so taking Emma Jane out in it was a little tricky. I had to wait until Vivi was happily asleep since she is too little to be taken out in the below freezing temperatures. After spending at least 10 minutes getting Emma Jane dressed in a turtle neck, sweatshirt, tights, pants, thick socks, boots, overcoat, hat, and mittens, we only spent a grand total of 15 minutes outside! Our neighbors had attached an inflatable raft to a rope and wanted to pull Emma Jane on it around the cul-de-sac. I thought she'd be all for it, but she chickened out and politely said, "No thank you!" while running in the other direction. I was secretly relieved since getting her to the emergency room would have been a nightmare if there had been an accident. Yes, I'm a little overprotective, but with a daredevil like Emma Jane, you always have to prepare for a possible mishap.