Let's start with Elsa. She's just making leaps and bounds with her language. I love it!
For instance, I've noticed she's started saying things like, "He drinkded the water, Mommy!" and I love that she's trying to figure out how to make things past-tense. She's also figured out that adding an "apostrophe-s" makes things possessive... and it always cracks me up to hear her say, "No that's MY'S!!!" No way I'm correcting her.
Another cute thing she did the other day was (as she was pretending to cook with her toys) she said, "I'm makin' dinner for Baby Hudson!" (He's our cousin's new baby.) So I asked her, "What are you making him?" And she said, "Chocolate and yogurt!!" That made me smile, because I know that those are the two most delicious things she can think of.
Another super-smart thing she said today was. "Mommy, you got bracelets on your white shirt!"
(This is what I am wearing.)
She struggles with a tendency to be very whiny/fussy. She LOVES to cry (weird weird weird.) In fact, over Thanksgiving break, Chris's grandma Rosemary was playing with her and pretended to be sad and cry... then she asked Elsa "Can YOU be sad and cry?" And Elsa burst into literal, inconsolable tears. Grandma was so amazed she repeated this two more times after we'd gotten Elsa calmed down (much to my chagrin.) So that's an interesting quality in my firstborn daughter. The ability to be very convincingly sad, even when she has no reason to be. Makes for quite a parental dilemma, because on the one hand, we want to be comforting and empathetic when she's hurting. But on the other hand, we do not want to coddle her when she's just faking it and perpetuate this ridiculous fake-crying nonsense. It's especially difficult to tell at night whether it's the real "I'm afraid" or "I'm uncomfortable" crying... or the whiny, nonsense crying. Hmmmm.
Along with crying... Elsa enjoys play-doh, stickers, arranging her stuffed animals and being their mommy, and hugging Ava. She is nothing but adoring of her baby sister. Lately she has even started saying things like, "Aaaaava. I love you SO much!" when she hugs her. It's just so delightful to me that she is loving, affectionate, and never jealous.
Ok, now for an update on Ava. She started smiling around 5 weeks. (Much earlier than Elsa!) She's generally very happy and sweet, but still has her moments of crying for unexplained reasons sometimes. I'm sure it's just tummy discomfort. She now takes Zantac for her reflux... which has been a lifesaver, because it was so bad at first that we couldn't get through a feeding cycle without so much discomfort and spitting up from her. And that made night feedings such torture.
We moved her out of our room and into the nursery this week. I think I had had it up to here with sharing a room with babies after the four of us had to share one room over Thanksgiving weekend at Grandma's. Surprisingly, I find it is no more inconvenient to walk across the house to feed her than if we had her in our room (because I have to go into the kitchen anyway to make a bottle.) And not only is it no more inconvenient... it's much nicer to do the feeding in her room where I have a cushy glider to sit in! I really must remember this for future babies. I don't know why I keep thinking that having them in our room is easier.
She's currently able to stay awake at least an hour at a time before needing to nap again. And she does SO well on the feeding schedule we've had her on. Stays awake an hour or so, then sleeps for the next two until her feeding. Then in the evening I've managed to get her to take a 6:00 bottle and stay awake until nearly 8:00! (Only if we get her into the bath tub that last hour does this work.) This gets her nice and tired before nighttime and allows me to feed her one final bottle before going down for the night. After that feeding, she typically won't wake up for her next one until at least 1:00 am. So that's a 5-6 hour stretch on average. Too bad I'm never asleep before midnight. (Gotta soak up my mama-time!) After that, she does one more "night feeding" between 4-6am, and gets up for the day around 9:00. I'm very strict on this because it allows me to line up Elsa and Ava's afternoon naps and get some alone time.
On another note, speaking of future children... my OB has told me that if we want four kids, he would advise we hurry up and have the other two. He feels that it is urgent, since my genetic mutation also predisposes me to ovarian cancer. I've planned on having my ovaries removed eventually, I just didn't realize how soon he would want me to do it. According to him, the sooner the better. He's decided he wants to do an ultrasound on me every 6 months in the meantime to keep an eye on them. Talk about pressure! Tick tock! I really did not want to have "stairstep babies" one after another. The idea is quite jarring to me. So I'm not sure how we'll proceed in the area of family planning... time will tell.
Ok! Good update, Carissa. Here are some recent pics of the girls before I sign off. :)
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