Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Got home late last night from our trip to Nashville. It was really fun to hang out with Jeremy and Charity, but the 10-hour car ride was exhausting. (I think the last ten minutes on the way home were the worst..... the girls kept getting louder and louder and LOUDER!)

We visited the Nashville Zoo, shopped at the Opry Mills, went to church on Easter Sunday at a worship service inside of a bar & grille (sounds weird, but it was really neat!), drove around downtown Nashville, saw Jeremy's work and "Music Row", and Nashville's Parthenon. Baked cake and cookies with Charity. Took Jeremy out to lunch at the Pancake Pantry. Watched the girls hunt for Easter eggs. Fed Aliah her first tastes of candy and chocolate (she spit them out!). Visited Nashville's Adventure Science Center, and got in for free with our museum passes. And I think we also convinced our childless friends that they should start having babies soon! ;) We'll see about that.



New things that each of the girls have been doing in the past couple weeks:

Hannah has been diligently teaching herself to whistle for the past two weeks. She's almost got it. She's also really come out of her shell lately. She is rarely the shy four-year-old that most of us had come to know, accept, and love. So much so that I now have to tell her to "be quiet" much more often! During our trip I felt like she never ever stopped talking and making noise!!! She loves her little sister too much sometimes, and often gets in trouble for picking her up or squeezing her too hard.
Sometimes I feel like I am too hard on her, other times I feel we are too easy with her. It is difficult to find a balance and for us to be consistent in the way we deal with her.

Aliah is fifteen months old, very active, curious, and silly. She imitates everything she sees and hears. She still eats a ton, but at least now she doesn't shove quite as much food into her mouth at one time. Her newest words are "cookie" and "cracker". She also says her own special version of "thank you", sounding something like "gah goo". She loves her big sister, but especially lights up whenever her Daddy comes home. She will yell "Dada!" and run right at him. She is great at giving hugs and kisses. She likes to play with baby dolls, and will rock them and hold them and feed them. But she equally likes cars, trucks, sticks, rocks, and dirt. She has recently discovered the joy of sliding down sliding boards. She waves goodbye everytime we get in & out of the car, or whenever she sees another car drive by.

Our girls are so much fun and it is really neat to watch them learn and grow.
I just wish I was better at recording these kinds of things.

"Duh!" moment

First, let me apologize for being MIA and not making updates over the past two weeks. Is it excuse enough that last week we drove over 1000 miles and slept in four different places within a 6-day stretch? (I still have yet to catch up on the monster pile of laundry that is lurking at the end of the hallway.)

I might elaborate on our lovely fall road trip another time, but for now let it suffice to say that we had a great time (despite Aliah contracting her first cold): camping with our college buddies was a blast, as was hanging out with my in-laws, playing with our adorable little nephew, and crashing at my parent's house in Maryland for one day.

What I really wanted to say tonight is this:
Tonight, Aliah said "duh" for duck! She has previously repeated a word or sound when I initiated, but never spontaneously said things on her own. She had just taken a bath and I was carrying her out of the bathroom. I turned around to flick off the bathroom lights. (Our bathroom is decorated with ducks, and the switchplate has 2 yellow duckies pictured on it.) Aliah reached up, and I thought she was trying to get the lightswitch - but then I heard her saying "duh duh duh." Ok, now I know that babies liek to babble, but this was a distincting different sound from the normal "da ba ba" baby-speak - and I realized that she was trying to say DUCK! "duh... k-k-k", she tried again. I think we stood there and pointed and talked to that lightswitch for a full five minutes. Hannah was wondering if Mommy had gone crazy... but honestly, it was a cute moment. And I knew that if I didn't write it out immediately, it will never ever make it into her baby book.

So there it is, Aliah's first word (other than Mama/Dada): Duck.

She also loves dogs (sometimes she even attempts to bark like a dog, screeching "uh! uh! uh!", while nodding her head, which is so cute, and absolutely hilarious!). Fittingly, she will be a puppy for Halloween.

Here is a sneak-peak of my costumed girls...

Ok, pardon the interruption, I just realized that the last four weeks of pictures are still trapped inside my camera. That meant downloading them all onto our computer before I could attempt to share them with anyone else.

So, attaching a picture took much longer than I had anticipated. Nevertheless, here are their Halloween costumes (not a wonderful photo of either of them, but you get the idea):



Goodnight, and have a wonderful week!

Travelling

We're on vacation! We're spending the weekend with my parents in Maryland, then ten days in PA with in-laws and friends.

The girls are being totally spoiled by relatives, and Mike is trying to relax during his week off. My parents pool is calling my name - I didnt get to swim yesterday. Maybe I will, after breakfast. The water is still chilly. But Hannah wore her bathing suit all day long - she can really get around in the pool (as long as she's connected to some sort of floatation device).

Everyone else is still asleep around here - big party last night.
Hannah did NOT want to leave the party. (She has been extra-stubborn for the past two weeks.) She stayed up until 11:30pm! Most of the other people left around midnight.

The sunrise woke me up. Aliah gifted me with 6 solid hours of sleep this morning, so I dont feel quite as tired as I have during the past few days. Taking some naps this week will also help :)

Sorry Ive been MIA. Busy busy busy with the kids.

We went to Maryland, to see my family for the weekend. Aliah's first road trip - I had almost forgotten what it was like to travel with an infant. We had to stop about every hour for something or other. Not so fun.

It was a subdued trip, without my brother ("A") or my dad's side of the family around. And it was especially exhausting for me: between feeding Aliah, coping with her fussiness (she really hated being in her carseat for six hours, poor girl!), and dealing with Hannah's potty accidents - with all of us sleeping together in one room - I got very little sleep.

Needless to say, Hannah is not ready for overnight potty training yet. I had to wash all of her clothes TWICE, and we were only there for 2 nights! Yuck. Sometimes she will flat-out refuse to pee in the toilet. I dont know what to do with her! That girl is really stubborn. She only does things if and when she wants to.
My mom kept telling me things like "Be encouraging, don't get mad at her; she can't help it." But Hannah has been out of diapers for a year and a half! It's not like she can't use the potty. She just doesn't think it is important. She doesn't even seem to care if her pants get wet! Now it's just turned into a power struggle, and I really hate it.

It doesn't help matters that Mike scheduled himself to work a whole bunch of extra overtime this month. He is working 26 days in March. 26 days x 12 hours = a big paycheck, but it isnt worth it if you never get to spend time with your family. Maybe this weekend we'll get some time together - it's the one weekend in this whole rotation that Mike has off from work!

In other news, the girls are getting baptised on Sunday!

And now I need to fall in bed and go to sleep before Aliah gets hungry again. The rest of my laundry might not be washed or folded, but at least we all have clean sheets tonight.

A Funny Thing Happened Yesterday....

I have had exactly twenty-four hours by myself, all alone, in this house.
I thought I would be really sad and lonely, but Im not.
I have moments when I still look around and think "Where is Hannah? Shouldn't she be hanging onto my leg right about now, or sitting on my lap, reading a book? Don't I need to make her dinner now?"

No, not today.

You see, yesterday, while Hannah & I were at a scrapbooking party, Mike called. He has this week off from work, and he was getting cabin fever already. He said "I want to go to Pittsburgh. With Hannah." I was so surprised! I replied "Ok, if that's what you want to do." So we came home, I packed Hannah's shoes and toys and clothes in a small suitcase, and around 6pm, they started driving north. They stayed at my parent's house last night.

I couldn't go, I have other responsibilities here. Like church and babysitting and work and meetings. I had no idea that Mike was going to drop everything and take off on a road trip! But I guess this is payback for all the times I've taken Hannah travelling to visit people without him.

This is definitely a big deal, because Hannah and I have never been away from each other for more than a few hours. Maybe eight hours, max.
I wondered if she would be sad that I wasn't coming, too. Usually it's her daddy who has to stay behind. But no, that girl got into the car, buckled herself into the carseat, hugged me, and waved "Bye Mommy!" until I couldn't see them anymore. No tears, she was perfectly content riding in the car with Daddy. That's good though, it means she feels happy and safe with him. Right?

The best part is that now Daddy gets to work on potty-training Hannah, not me! I head that she did not have any accidents in the car last night or today. Mike didn't tell any of his family or friends that he was coming - he literally just showed up at his parents' front door this afternoon. "SURPRISE!"

What a surprise!

Please pray that they stay safe and healthy and happy up there, and that I don't drive myself crazy here at home alone.

Happy Sunday!