We have been super busy with adjusting to life with two little girls! :-) They are both so precious and at such incredibly cute stages, but with a newborn and the intermittent defiant two year old behavior there have been some challenging times as well.
Addison has been doing incredibly well adjusting to her life as the "big girl" and "big sister." We went through a few episodes early on of jealousy with wanting to act like a baby and try to use Riley's pacifier or steal the boppy pillow from mommy....however, as the days go by these episodes are quickly diminishing, and she loves to give kisses and hugs to Riley. She has even started to put the pacifier in Riley's mouth when she needs it and snuggle with her on the couch. They are definitely cute together! :-)
Addison is OBSESSED with "ouwies" and ICE lately....there are regular episodes of real and make-believe injuries throughout the day! It is actually hysterical. Noah and I have moved the ice packs in the freezer to a shelf that is easily reachable for her to get her own ice as needed. :-) She is also, of course, still in to her tee-tee (her special monkey blanket) and "ulp" (the word that she has always used for milk). It is funny that as well as she speaks now, she still uses this phrase for milk.....kind of endearing! :-) I wonder if the will order "cereal and ulp" when she is in college???!! :-)
Baby dolls are still a FAVORITE toy, and probably even more so since Riley arrived. She is regularly changing their diapers, changing their clothes (usually using Riley's clothing) and taking them on stroller rides. On occasion, she will even lift her shirt and pretend to nurse and burp the baby....when I asked her about it, she said, "that's what mommy does." Cute to watch her imitate being a mother. :-)
Another big development for Addie has been her beginning to potty train herself. I bought her a small frog potty, and the first day I brought it home she peed 6 times in it! She gets a huge grin and dances each time saying, "mama, I pee-peed!!!" We make a big deal of it and then clean it out together! She pees a few times each day in it, and yesterday morning even pooped in it! Now it is getting her to remember without reminders to "go try to use the potty please."
We have had lots of playdates to keep Addison occupied and entertained with this transition in to being a big sister. We continue to do our music class on Thursdays and our regular playgroup on Wednesdays.
She has a wonderful time with daddy home for two weeks and Opa and Jojo visiting for another two weeks!
Santa has been super exciting this year, and Addison can't wait for him to visit our house. We went to see him at Macy's Santa land last weekend, and she loved seeing Santa's village. :-) We have been watching lots of Christmas movies, reading Christmas stories, and talking about him each day! I can't wait to see her face Christmas morning! Our tree is up (we had so much fun picking it out!) and the stockings are hung....Addison can tell you which stocking belongs to each of us and has made lots of fun ornaments to hang on our tree this year! When you ask her how to call Santa she says, "santa, santa, ho, ho, ho!" (from Mickey Mouse club)
Riley.....she is a wonderful baby!!! She is already a month old...can't believe it! She has been only awakening one to two (maximum) times at night to eat, and sleeps like a champ otherwise! I weighed her on our scale last week and it said 9 pounds...so she is definitely beginning to chunk out a bit and get those adorable chunky baby cheeks! She is quite the snuggler...loves to be held close to my chest (so the baby bjorn has become incredibly handy!). I have had some of the same challenges with breastfeeding due to overproducing again, but have been working on a technique that the lactation consultant told me to try...so we'll see how it goes. She nurses well, she just sometimes gets a little too much milk and then becomes gassy, hiccuppy and irritable for a bit. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better second child so far....such a sweetheart! We have been doing some mat time and some swing time, but her preference is to be held close to someone's heart as much as possible....and I'll take it while I can have it, because I now understand how quickly this passes! We will return to the doctor at 2 months for lots of shots..ugh, definitely dreading that visit.
We had an amazing two week visit from Opa and Jojo....they were incredibly helpful with both kids and helping to keep my house picked up, meals cooked, laundry completed...I have definitely missed them this past week! :-) We are looking forward to the arrival of Nana on Christmas night and Papa a few days later!
I promise to try to update the blog soon....enjoy lots of pictures from the last few weeks!
