Growin' Up

Here you go, mom in NEAZ, Lulu crawling for a balloon "speedily." This was 5 days ago however, and she's gotten better since. I've caught her in the bathroom a number of times after a mad dash down the hall, and she can now pull herself up to standing on stools, chairs, her crib, Bedelia's bed AND can find electrical outlets. I love this stage, but the awareness level in "where is Lucy?!" and "What's Lucy doing?" is just flat out making me tired!

And here is Lulu after Daddy made her go to sleep on her own when he was in charge of the girls during a concert of mine. Very similar to another little girl in our home at about the same age. Just thought it was funny. I literally had to peel her apart to get her to lay flat when I got home. Guess which is which.

Winter is Upon Us

This is around th 7th consecutive day of rain at our house. We have the heater going finally. I laugh at the weather here in Phoenix, because it took until Thanksgiving Day for the weather to finally drop below 90 degrees, and when it did drop, it hasn't been much over 60 degrees since. The rain has been fabulous for the area, up north snow is falling in abundance, so winter has finally hit Arizona! Bedelia soaked her pants earlier on a trip to the grocery store from splashing in the puddles, and when she woke up from her nap and it was still raining, all she could think about was using an umbrella outside, so we bundled up and had a good time. (Well, Bedelia had fun, Lulu was NOT impressed by the rain, nor the thought of being forced to wear something over her ears, but she grinned and bared it.)

Now and Then

I can't help but brag, these girls are just so beautiful! I have been so blessed to have such a good and beautiful family. It's amazing to think how much they have both grown in 7 months. It's amazing to think how much I have grown in 7 months as well, as a mother I mean... My two year old has taught me to have more patience and love, and my 7 month old has taught me to relax and to take one on one time as often as I can with her. I am just truly thankful to my Father in Heaven this Christmas season that I was given the gift of motherhood. It truly has been the greatest gift in the world!

P.S. I can't help but giggle and the little similarities between the two photos! I'll see if you noticed the same things I did! Let me know! :)

A Lulu Milestone

Lulu is on the move! She's been scooting and spinning and grunting her way around the room for a month now, and finally on Sunday she got up on all fours and crawled! We are so proud of her and her great accomplishment. Bedelia, however, has been caught guarding toys, running for cover saying, "quick, hide! Lucy's coming!" She is proud of her too, maybe a little jealous at times of the attention, for she too has been crawling a lot this week. Baby proofing the house again has swung into full gear.

A Crazy Week

This week has been so crazy. My husband has been at a new job since February of this year and its been quite the change of pace for him. We knew it would be when he took the job, and honestly I have seen some tremendous growth on his part since starting this job, but I don't think I had prepared myself for what it would do to me to have my husband in a stressful and deadline-based job. For anyone who knows my hubby, you know he is a very low key, easy going sort of guy, he doesn't seek out stress or causes to be stressed. Well, this job forces him to stay on task almost constantly. Okay, with that preface let me tell you the time line of our week:

A project needing to be done Wednesday. Promised portion of that project to be delivered Monday morning. Sunday night, after the girls have gone to bed, he gets his computer at the kitchen table and starts working. I go to bed, and wake up to a girl crying around 1:00 to find my husband asleep at his computer. I wake him up, he starts working again, I go back to sleep. I wake up around 3:00, he's still not in bed and I find the lights on and now he's transferred to the couch. Okay, this time he comes to bed.

Monday night: More work needs to be done, procrastinates to watch a favorite TV show after the girls are in bed, puts off a friend meeting and begins to work around 9:00. I finally go to bed around 11:00, wake up at 3:00 and he's transferred himself to the living room floor sound asleep face down. I wake him up, he comes to bed and gets up a couple hours later to finish.

Tuesday night (Or was this Wednesday, I can't even remember!): Lulu finally goes back to bed in her crib in Bedelia's room (Instead of the port-a-crib in the office during "Sleep training" period) so my husband gets his comfy office chair back, after attending to Mutual night duties comes home and starts working. I again go to bed around 11:00, wake up sometime in the night and hear no sounds so I go and check the office, and there's my husband asleep in his office chair,
(That must have been a combo of Tuesday and Wednesday... Sorry! The details are fuzzy in there)

Thursday: same thing as before, found asleep in office chair, wakes up at 3, works from home till 8:00 and takes off for work. We did not see him home until 11:00 that night completely exhausted.

The week kind of continued this way. Don't get me wrong, he got a lot accomplished and the project was done enough for purposes at work, but my poor husband it doesn't seem like he EVER came to bed!! And trust me, he surely wanted to.... So while he is working hard to do his job, I am acting as the in home project manager or something, and feel the direct impact of how hard he is required to work. (Let me tell you though, I am so grateful my husband works hard so that I don't have to leave the home, I love the job of a mommy and he loves the job of a computer programmer...) We're all looking forward to a better week next week, where maybe we can start to enjoy the fact that our 2 children are sleeping through the night. WHO'S GONNA TRAIN THE PARENTS?! :)

This week I spent the whole week trying to organize Christmas. (A lot of details I've vented to enough people already, so I won't clog my blog with them) Bedelia has decided she wants to ask Santa for a tricycle. I put a request in to him and the tingling senses a mother is blessed with say Santa's elves may have been able to work something out for her... after all she's been a very good girl. We'll just have to see Christmas morning if Santa will fulfill a little girls wish. Stay tuned.....

Copy-Cats

Today we went to the zoo with Bedelia's favorite friend, Max. They are the perfect little duo, because Bedelia loves to be good and Max likes to, well, he likes to be in his own world and Bedelia likes to remind him to be good while in his own world. This gives Bedelia someone to "mimic-mother" at. For example, Max's mom yells at Max to come back as he runs away, and not a second later Bedelia is yelling after Max. So, Max likes to misbehave, Bedelia likes to keep in him line, often giving great looks of confusion at her friend as if she's saying "I can't believe he's not going to do what his mom told him to!" (I love my daughter and her diligent attempt to be good!) Well, today, neither child wanted to ride in their strollers at the zoo, so the solution us mother's came up with was to sick Bedelia on Max and make them hold hands. They did (Thanks to Bedelia's constant reinforcements. Max eventually was also grabbing her hand when she'd let go.) and they became a great zoo buddy team. It was so cute! Here are some photos from our outing today.

I can't leave my Lulu out. She too was caught in a true copy-"cat" moment today. The picture speaks for itself.

Lucy doesn't like peas

Translation:
"Don't you like it? Oh, Lucy, my sister!
Come ere, come ere, come ere...
Look. Look at. This is the (? We think shes saying peas, or good stuff... take your pick)
She wants to eat it, just shes not eating it."

"Hold Still Luc."

This was dinner tonight. Bedelia was determined to feed her sister her dinner. However Lulu wasn't so convinced she wanted to eat ground up peas. It really hurt Bedelia's feelings that Lulu wouldn't eat her bites and eventually was taken out of the high chair after hardly touching her dinner. Se La Vi. I thought it was cute though. Whenever I see my daughter doing things like this it's like looking into a mirror, she says and does things she sees me or daddy doing, the mimic-mothering really make me giggle some days.

A New Start

This Blog is my personalized attempt to tell my girls stories for all our family and friends to read. I will also post pictures here instead of on our former blog. I am constantly laughing at the funny things my 2 year old says and at the mischief that my 6 month old seems to get into (Like sticking her pointy little finger up my nose today and giving me a bloody nose...) Life is so interesting with my girls, so I'll try out this blog thing and maybe be sucessful this time. Enjoy!