Sunglasses

My girls are cute, and even cuter while wearing their sunglasses! Of course if they fit better it would have been easier.

But it still made for very cute photos!

Dance

Summer has taken dance classes since she was 15 months old. It all started with mommy & me ... that was fun, then we advanced into a real ballet/tap/jazz class. Now she does tap and ballet. She does so good and I am proud of her for sticking with it so long. I hope she likes dance as much as I did/do :o) and continues learning all that she can!

And ...

I love this age, well better than the other ages so far - 4 1/2 months ... mostly because she is starting to show personality, at least when her hand/fist/any other item is not stuffed in her mouth. And maybe she will stay blue eyed, because they don't seem to be changing anymore. Or are they. And how can she be so chunky, seriously, drying off her neck after a bath is almost impossible. Oh and I am never going to complain about sleep again, after the last sleep post she slept the next night even worse if you can imagine. I think it is teeth. We are trying that baltic amber teething necklace. Does it work? I have no idea but she slept better the next night and it is really cute so why not. And it's getting warmer outside, that always makes me happy. And that is all - at least for now!

We went to the park to play

We went to the park today ...

Because we just had to play ...

It was sunny and hot ...

And we sure did a lot ...

We will go back again real soon ...

Real soon, real soon, real soon ...

I miss my sleep

A typical night goes a little like this - Pepper goes to sleep around 7:00/7:30 PM. She wakes up for some reason crying at 7:45 PM but generally goes right back to sleep. I go to bed around 9:00 PM. I hopefully fall asleep within the first 30 minutes. Pepper wakes up for a bottle somewhere between 11:00-12:00 AM. She downs all 6 ounces, burps, gets a new diaper, and goes right back to sleep. I try to fall right back to sleep but it can take me anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. I wish I could fall asleep faster but I tend to think about everything, and honestly, I have some of my best ideas during the middle of the night. Sometimes, often, Pepper wakes up around 2:00 AM, which is way too early for a bottle, so I pop in the good old pacifier. She usually goes right back to sleep but it takes me forever. Kris doesn't really snore but he tends to breath extremely loud, and that doesn't help me either. Around 4:00 or 5:00 AM Pepper is back awake for her second bottle, she normally drinks it all. She gets a new diaper and goes back into her bed. I lay there trying to fall back asleep. Around 5:45 AM she wakes up crying for some reason, I put her in my bed where she falls to sleep immediately for 15 minutes, then wakes, takes the pacifier, falls asleep, wakes, falls asleep, pacifier, sleeps, wakes, etc, until around 6:30-7:00 AM at which time she is awake for the day. My point is - she sucks at sleeping and I suck at falling asleep, which makes me tired often. A few times, like last night, we put her in the car seat to sleep. She sleeps better and so do I, she went to bed at 7:30 PM, woke at 12:30 AM, woke at 4:30 AM, again at 5:30 AM, but I put her in my bed, as she tossed around like she does so I put her back in the car seat at 5:45 AM and she slept until 7:45 AM! I feel like I actually got a good amount of sleep last night but I hate putting her in the car seat. I have read the risks (breathing due to sitting inclined) and I try to put the seat at more of a V angle, so I am just hoping that she grows out of this, well I know she will grow out of it eventually. I think she sleeps better in the car seat because of the comfort of being more confined. In the meantime I am learning how to function on broken sleep with less than 4 hours at a time. I think I am doing ok for the most part but I have my moments, like yesterday. Oh, and let's not forget naps, or the lack of being able to take a nap, because Pepper only takes a 45 minute (ish) nap each time she naps, which is about 4 times a day. By the time it takes me to fall asleep she is already awake. I like to think I am a good mom and I definitely love my baby but I don't like this stage, in fact I hate to say I am ready for her to be 9 months and crawling, rolling, a bit more mobile and independent and hopefully sleeping better. Sometimes I fear she is going to start crying and I am not going to be able to get her to stop, like last night, she was probably overly tired, teething, who knows, and she just starting crying at bedtime and would not stop. I could not hold/comfort her, and she didn't want her pacifier. After about 10 minutes Kris came and got her and walked around with her. She finally fell asleep in his arms - thankfully, and was back to normal this morning.

I can't imagine having babies back to back, I am so lucky that Summer sleeps all night, I can't imagine if I had to deal with her waking up at night too. I remember when I got pregnant thinking to be careful what you wish for because you just might get it and not want it, I wanted Pepper, but I wouldn't mind if she slept a little bit better. Overall she is getting better, easier to take care of. I guess I really don't like the newborn stage as much as I thought, I am more of a toddler kinda mom. Hey, no one is perfect, at least I admit it!

Here are a few photos I took yesterday of the girls!

All About Summer

All about Summer!

Favorite Color: Pink

Favorite Vegetable: Corn

Favorite Movie: Barbie Fairy Secret

Favorite Princess: Snow White

Favorite Letter of the Alphabet: A

Favorite Animal: Cat

Favorite TV Show: Curious George

Favorite Snack: Animal Crackers

Favorite Season: Summer

Favorite Holiday: Christmas

Favorite Number: 4

Favorite Toy: Princess Figures

Favorite Book: Little Einstein Book

Yuck

Earlier today Summer was coughing (we think allergies) and threw up on the floor a few minutes ago. She immediately said, "I just threw up on the floor but its on the tile so at least its easy to clean" while proceeding to get some ice cream. Thanks kid. So thoughtful. And allergies, why does she have allergies, no one in our family has allergies that I know of. It has been windy and we have a big pine looking tree out back that has yellow stuff coming off of it, Summer has had itchy eyes for two days now. Itch itch itch itch .... so annoying. I hope the yellow stuff is gone soon, we had a nice cold front hit yesterday, lots of rain and wind, so maybe its almost gone?

Pepper is doing fine, not much new to report on her - still not rolling over, still spitting up ALL THE TIME. The other night she spit up in my hair, it was around 3 or 4 in the morning, I was so tired, I just tried to wipe it out, then the next day I just decided to braid my hair instead of wash it. I did take a shower later in the day :o) just not first thing in the morning. Little stinker is also not sleeping as well as I think she could be, still waking up twice a night. Normally she doesn't spit up at night so that was a special treat just for me. But seriously, let's see some all nighters! I keep telling myself as I watch her peacefully suck down another 6 ounces at all times of the night that this will not last forever so I am trying to enjoy it. I am also enjoying her non rolling abilities because she will be rolling any day now, at least I think she will - did she miss the memo? I am not worried, yet.

We had a photo shoot today, which made me realize how I am taking hardly any pictures of Summer these days ;o( I need to get out the good lights and do something for my older daughter before she turns 16 and drives away forever. Anyway here are the cutie photos of Pepper.

Luckily I remembered I had this dress, I bought it a few months ago and it is a size 3-6 months, she is in 6-9, it fit, barely, I just didn't have both buttons buttoned in the back.

St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday we had a St. Patrick's Day party at our house. It included all things green and rainbow, and a bunch of balloons too. It was a lot of fun - the food was good - the kids had a great time, mostly jumping on the trampoline and playing in the sand box, and the mommies got to hang out and talk, oh and play pictionary!

Both girls are wearing Green! I had a few pictures where Pepper was actually smiling but of course Summer wasn't looking at the camera in those pictures grrr lol.

Next party - Spring/Easter woohooo!

Changes

Things are changing, most importantly the weather!!! This week the temperatures have been in the mid to upper 70's and I love it! Spring is right around the corner and I couldn't be happier. Something else is changing .... Pepper's eye color. I am not sure where they will end up but you can clearly see the middle of her eyes are no longer blue. Brown? Green? Hazel like her sister and both of our fathers? You probably can't see it in these photos real well can you?

and look at that hair, how in the world did I end up with a reddish haired baby? Never in a million years would I have guessed that one. Do red headed people have brown eyes? Here is another picture of her eye up close, maybe you can kinda see it here.

It mostly looks yellow to me, hopefully she doesn't turn into an avatar lol. I am also loving 4 months old, better than 3 months. Pepper is really starting to master grabbing things. Most things go into her mouth of course. If she sees something she wants she will grab it and she tries darn hard to get it into her mouth. She is also a little happier, but I can tell she wants to start moving. She gets annoyed at laying on her back on the floor in one spot. I keep telling her to roll over but so far she isn't showing much interest. Sometimes I put her in bed with me in the morning so she will sleep longer and she has no problem rolling from her back to her side to face me so I have a feeling if she really wanted to roll over she could.

Here is a rather boring and long video showing Pepper laughing (sorta) at her sister. She finds us amusing but not enough to give us a really good laugh yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W60HrZ-QZU8 We were shopping at Lowes, she is in her car seat inside the shopping cart, in case you were wondering.

Lazy Sunday

We finally seem to be healthy around here, just in time for the warm weather (I hope). The time change was today and I think it went ok, it will be nice to wake up at 6:00 am instead of 5:00 am and I will have no problem going to bed an hour earlier. Pepper is constantly putting her fists and everything else she can grab into her mouth. She is starting to drool a lot more too, of course. She can sit up unsupported in her play chair thing too. Not that she likes sitting in it for longer than a few minutes. Summer still likes Pepper and has no problem with her neediness. Summer is also doing good, she is finally starting to help with "chores", and by chores I mean picking up after herself. I guess we should have started when she was younger but at least she isn't fighting us too bad right now. I also discovered that by adding a leave-in conditioner in the water spray bottle, it takes out the tangles and doesn't hurt her when we brush her hair each morning - shew! I was getting tired of hearing her cry every single morning when we had to brush hair, and she doesn't want to get it cut. Here are a few pictures of the girls from today.