Monday Fun-Day!

First time sitting in "big girl" high chairs!

9 Months Old!

Happy 9 months to my sweet Phoebe June and Piper Rose!  I can hardly believe that in only 3 shorts months my little girls will be 1 years old.

Both girls continue to grow and learn new things each and every day.  Piper was a little bit slower to learn how to crawl, but she has caught up to her sister quickly and is now racing around our condo non-stop!  Piper also loves to pull herself up on things.  I will often see her standing all the way up in her crib in the mornings...yikes!  The nurse told me today at her 9 month old appointment that Piper could be walking in about a month and a half.  I don't know if I am ready for that!  Piper is still not a huge fan of solid food but she is a good sport tasting all the new creations I make.

Phoebe on the other hand is our designated eater.  That little girl LOVES food!  I recently added black beans to our baby food menu.  Phoebe could not get enough (just like her mommy)!  In addition to eating Phoebe loves to play, sing and crawl all over the place.  She has not pulled herself up yet but I am sure that will start soon.

Today was Piper and Phoebe's 9 month old doctor appointment.  WOW, there was a lot of information to learn and go over.  In the end I learned that both girls are doing AWESOME.  The NP was very pleased with their growth and development.  She kept telling me that the girls had HUGE hands and feet.  Who would have thought?!?  Not me!  Another cool thing that I learned today was that both Phoebe and Piper grew 2 inches since their last doctor appointment.  Apparently most babies only grow 1/2 inch, but not my girls, they are over achievers.

Here is their growth breakdown:

Piper weighs 15lbs 5.5ounces and is 25.25 inches long

Phoebe weighs 14lbs 13.5ounces and is 25.25 inches long

Happy Birthday James!

Today marks exactly one more year for my dear sweet James to be in his "30's"!  We kicked off his birthday celebration yesterday with an adult only trip to Disneyland.  Since James is such an enormous Disney fan I made reservations for us to do the Walking with Walt walking tour at the park.  Thank you to Grammie for watching Piper and Phoebe ALL day long so we could celebrate.  The tour was awesome, I would highly recommend it.  James even learned a few fun facts about the park that he didn't already know.  Then the best part of the tour, aside from the yummy lunch was a trip up to Walt's private apartment above the fire station on Main Street.  James was like a little boy up there.  He could not get enough.  They even let us take our picture up in the room...what a treat!!!

After our tour James and I got to go on some big kid rides, have a delicious dinner and then hit the grocery store on our way home (you have to maximize your time when you don't have babies). :-)

Today was James actual birthday and he requested to open up his gift when he got home from work.  I was honestly so excited all day waiting for him to get home.  Here are some pictures of James and his favorite little girls opening up his gift.  I was so excited that James LOVED his shirt.  He has so many that it is getting harder and harder to pick out his gifts.

I am so thankful for James.  He is not only my husband but my best friend!  Thank you for bring such a wonderful daddy to our daughters and such a wonderful encourager to me.  I love you with all of my heart, my sweetheart!

Monday Fun-Day!

Walt Disney's private apartment @ Disneyland

Happy 38th Birthday Sweetheart

Yummy!!!

Poop, Pumping, Playing and SO Much More...

What is that brown stuff all over Piper and her pack and play you ask?  I wish I could say it was chocolate or mud but I sadly can not.  If you guessed poop, well you are right.  Saturday night started out uneventful.  I fed the babies and they feel asleep while eating.  Thinking they would sleep for a bit I put both babies in their pack and plays and ran upstairs to get dressed and ready for my big girls night out.  I got ready with my door open, constantly listening for any baby sounds, I heard nothing so I kept getting ready.  After a short time upstairs I came down to get the babies in their jammies so we could head over to my Auntie Margie's house (she was watching them for the night so I could go out with some college friends).  As I looked in on Piper this is exactly what I saw.  I could not believe my eyes.  I know Piper liked to play with diapers but I had no idea she knew how to take them off too.  It appears that Piper took her diaper off, pooped and then decided to play with it.  I could not believe how well she got it all over herself and the pack and play.  Running a little behind now I ran Piper upstairs, gave her a bath and then we were off.  What a story this will be for years to come.  The one HUGE lesson I learned from this, is to never ever leave Piper in only a diaper.  She will always have at least a onesie one to help prevent another painting party from happening.

Oh pumping....what a love/hate relationship we have.  Since the babies were first born I have pumped.  It was very important to me that the babies get as much breast milk as possible.  While in the NICU the babies only had to have formula one time, this is something I am very proud of.  Since then the babies have been able to have a diet of mostly all breast milk with some formula mixed in.  This has been no easy feat.  When the babies were tiny I pumped 8 times a day.  When I went back to work in the fall I cut out one pump per day (yes, that is still 7 times a day).  Some days I feel like all I do is pump.  When I start to get frustrated with my dear sweet pump, who I have decided I should name Penelope Pump, I remember how important it is for me to give my sweet angels breast milk and then I am happy to pump.  There is seriously nothing I wouldn't do for my girls, this is just a small thing in the whole grand scheme of things that I can do to help Piper and Phoebe to grow healthy and strong.

In regards to pumping, I recently learned that Disneyland will store your pump for free (not your milk) in their first aid office.  This was thrilling for me since I am strict with my pumping schedule and hate to miss a pump even we we are having our family fun days at Disneyland.  

I can not believe how fast Phoebe and Piper are growing.  They LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to play.  Their new favorite thing to play in is the exersaucer.  Some days Phoebe would stay in their forever if I would let her.  They both love the songs that the little blue chameleon sings.  I wish I could say James and I love that song as much as they do.  Seriously the song gets stuck in our heads and we will bust out singing the song at any point during the day.  

The babies also go nuts for Molly.  She likes to play a little bit with them from time to time.  She is mostly scared of them and keeps to herself.  Now since Piper and Phoebe are both crawling we needed to baby proof our living room fast.  

In addition to getting rid of our coffee table we went out and bought baby gates.  It makes getting around the house a bit more challenging for James and I, but it is worth it to keep the girls safe from falling down our crazy steep steps.

Just recently Phoebe and Piper started to babble to one another.  It is the cutest thing I have ever seen.  One will babble and smile and then the other will smile and babble back.  Too cute!

As if I am not busy enough I recently decided to add one more thing to my plate...school.  Last month James and I got to talking about why I never finished my masters when I was working on my teaching credential.  I honestly could not remember why I never finished (I took one class and then gave up).  Wishing I had finished way back then does not help anything.  With that in mind James and I prayed and then decided I better go back to school now or else I may never do it.  I literally called around and got information from a few different schools, settle on National University (because they are allowing me to take only 4 classes because I have already taken 1 class there and I got my credential there too) and decided to start the first available class which happened to start the following week.  Talk about fast decision making!!!

Yesterday was my first day of class (online) and I nearly had a nervous breakdown.  Thank God for James and his  ability to talk me off the ledge as well as love and encourage me in just the right way.  I managed to complete a few chapters of reading, do my first post and make a weekly to-do list for myself.  Today, I am happy to say I feel a little bit better about everything.  I know each day will get better and better.  The sooner I can get a plan for myself in place the better things will be.  I thrive on schedules and structure so I will be happy once I have those in place.  I keep thinking, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.  When times get tough I stop, breathe and pray.  I want my girls to be proud of their mommy so I have to stick with this and finish. 

                                                     

Ok, one last thing (I promise) I had to add on this extremely long post.  Coconut oil is the best thing ever (thank you Dr. Supna for recommending it to me)!!!  Both girls have been suffering from eczema (Phoebe more so than Piper) for the past few months.  I have done a ton of different things to make sure their skin does not come in contact with anything that could irritate it.  Our pediatrician recommend that we use Eucerin lotion, which really didn't help at all.  When one day I was talking with Dr. Supna at church and she recommended I try coconut oil.  She said she buys hers at Trader Joes and it works really well.  Thinking I had nothing to loose I went out and bought the coconut oil.  I was honestly a little skeptical at first but thought I would try it.  Oh my goodness...it works miracles.  Both girls skin is doing SO much better.  I highly recommend using coconut oil instead of lotion when at all possible.  I have also heard it is really good for your hair too.

Monday Fun-Day!

New Parking lot and "Tram" to Disneyland Adventure