Four Months!

(photo is of Nadine today!)
I can't believe it has gone by so fast, but Nadine is four months old today! Justin took her to her appointment this morning, and she is doing great! She's now 16 pounds, and is 85th percentile for weight (and 90th for height, but I can't find the sheet with her height written on it...). The doctor said she looks very healthy and is on track with her milestones. Those milestones include smiling, giggling, reaching out and grasping toys (and then putting them in her mouth), sitting up with some kind of assistance, lots of babbling, and rolling from side to side. She has rolled onto her belly once, but I think it just scared her. She's doing pretty well with tummy time, in that she doesn't hate it quite as much as her sister did. And of course, she's heartbreakingly adorable. Her eyes are still blue for now, and we are starting to think maybe they will stay that way...? Her hair is definitely dark. When it's wet, it seems curly. Of course, the thing about baby #2 is that even while you have fun making guesses about how they will grow and end up, we know how fast it goes, so we are much better at slowing down and really soaking up each stage. She really is just such a wonderful little baby. I feel so incredibly lucky that I've been able to spend every day with her and be her primary caregiver. Roxanne also love love loves Nadine and wants to do lots of fun things with her little sister. She always wants to take a bath with her, but we only do that every once in a while because it's so hard to hold Nadine up in the big tub. Roxanne always wants to have matching clothes with Nadine, and she asks all the time about getting bunk beds. She really wants to share a room with Nadine, and we're considering it in a year or so. Maybe longer... Either way, it's very sweet that Roxanne is so in love with her little sister.
Roxanne and Justin at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Christmas Parade this past weekend.
Nadine in the bathroom sink for a super quick bath.
Storytime.
Listening!
Family portrait at the parade.

Nadine sucking her thumb.
Roxanne's first pedicure (and my second) at our first quick mom and me outing.
Roxanne at her school Thanksgiving chapel. Those are turkey legs on her hat.

Sisters playing.


Nadine video.

It's going too fast!

Sheesh. Nadine is getting soooo old. Of course, Roxanne is, too! Since I've been bad at blogging lately, I'll just fill you in on all that Nadine is doing now. She's eating and growing wonderfully. She goes back for her next doctor's visit in early December. She is cooing, smiling, and has let a few giggles out, which are basically the most adorable thing ever. She sits up with assistance, and really really wants to be sitting up all the time. She wants to either be perched on your shoulder where she can look around and see everything or sitting up in your arms so she can see. If you try to lay her back, or put her in her bouncey seat or car seat, she grunts and struggles to sit up straight. We need to break out the Bumbo seat soon since we think it might be perfect to help her sit upright. And now onto the photos. They are in a weird order, since Blogger has the most annoyingly sequenced photo uploader ever... Sorry.
This is from tonight. Justin was watching football, but in a house with all girls...he was also getting the dress-up treatment from Roxanne. Isn't she sweet?
I love this picture of Nadine because you can see how pretty her eyes are. They are still blue, and we're hoping maybe they will stay that way...? My mom has blue eyes, so it's not impossible. I mean, we have a blond kid, so yeah. Recessive genes are a real thing!
Here's her beautiful big smile. :)
Yes, she's wearing a disposable diaper. We are still using the cloth diapers almost exclusively, but if she gets diaper rash and needs ointment, we have to use the disposables. Ointment messes up the cloth diapers. They are definitely a little high maintenance, but so worth it!
Here she is in one of her sleep sacks. She was waving like a mad woman trying to grab me and/or the camera. She is definitely figuring out how to grab everything!
Again from tonight, Justin was watching football with Nadine.
This is how Roxanne fell asleep on her bed last night. We got home from work at 6 and she had fallen asleep in the car. I set her on her bed and she wiggled to this position and slept through the whole night. She is in a sleep transition right now. She doesn't want to nap, but probably still needs to. Definitely still needs to...
Here's me giving Nadine her very first bottle last night! Her pediatrician kept telling me I had to give her one much earlier, but we just didn't really get around to it (or maybe I didn't feel ready?). In spite of this picture, she actually took to it really well and ate the whole 2 ounces I had put in there. I used pumped milk since we aren't planning on using any formula unless something unforeseen happens. But I'm very relieved she took to the bottle so well. *knock on wood* it will make things much easier when I start back to school two nights a week in January.
Here she has it down pat! Please pardon my end-of-the-day-exhausted-in-pajamas looks.
Here's Roxanne and Nadine on the kitchen floor. This baby seat was from me or my sister. Nadine likes it because it allows her to sit more upright.
Looking serious in the sleep sack...
Here's a blurry picture of Roxanne trick-or-treating! We went with my friend Sarah and her adorable daughter who was dressed as a bumblebee. Roxanne was a watermelon fairy.
We went trick-or-treating in a neighborhood near downtown Decatur. Our neighborhood was a ghost town on Halloween last year (pun intended) so we ventured out. This little section of Decatur is full of kids and very safe. And as you can see, Roxanne was pretty happy with her candy haul.
At the start of trick-or-treating... She couldn't contain herself. Blurry photos should just show you how excited she was. She couldn't stop moving!
Here's baby Nadine on Halloween. She had a matching Watermelon Fairy costume, but it was just too chilly. So we opted for her panda sweater. Cute and snug.
See with the weird order?
Here's Roxanne in her costume at the Little Five Points Halloween Parade. It was really really fun. Of course, waiting is not her strong suit, so the time before the parade started was a little rough... Fortunately, my dad came with us and brought his super cute dog Eddie. Eddie helped pass the time.
Nadine the baby watermelon fairy.
The wings on the back? Adorable.
Pop Pop (my dad) got Roxanne a chocolate ice cream cone. Which she promptly dropped on the ground. Of course, he replaced it. Grandparents are the best.
And here's Roxanne at pre-school working on her art project for the Halloween party. I'm glad I was able to go. The kids were adorable in their costumes!

In honor of our new camera!

Justin's dad and Susan came for a lovely visit, and gave us their old (but awesome) camera. Yay! We've been very busy with everything and I'm back at work now. We're doing well and Nadine is getting huge! She is more smiley and interactive. Roxanne is loving school and being back at work. Yay for fall!
She loves her bouncy seat.
Please love the smile and ignore the drool.
So alert!
She loves the elephant.
Getting huge!
At Yule Forest (farm/pumpkin patch).
Hayride at Yule Forest with Grandpa Jim and Mimi.
Yule Forest.
The sisters at Yule Forest.
"Helping" Daddy carry a pumpkin.
Roxanne in the pumpkin fields. She was probably crying. Did you know pumpkin vines are actually covered in fine spikes. Tiny, but painful. We had the exact same thing happen last year. Sigh.
Roxanne on a horse at Yule Forest. She rode one here last year! The same guy led her last year.
Roxanne and Justin cutting off the perfect pumpkin at Yule Forest.
At the Ellijay Apple Festival. We somehow didn't take many photos at all here...
Sisters.

The Girls!

Here's Nadine in her bouncy seat.
Roxanne working on a family of bears.
Nadine in her panda sweater.
Teensy.
Roxanne was desperate to be in a picture with Nadine.
That's Roxanne's head hanging out of the pumpkin ferris wheel at the fair.
Bumper boats at the fair!
Waiting in line for a ride.
See how Nadine is staring at Roxanne? We were playing "this little piggy."

Little hams. :)
Daddy and his girls.
So cute.
This is how you eat a chocolate covered banana at the Piedmont Park Ice Cream Festival.
How the girls ride in the double stroller. Roxanne likes to turn around and sit on her knees to talk to Nadine.
When Daddy stops paying attention...
The closest I've gotten to catching a smile!
Roxanne in her classroom. She was supposed to be sitting with the other kids, but she insisted later that "there was no room." The teacher was nice enough not to reprimand her.
Roxanne at DragonCon.
Nadine in her new crib!

I apologize for letting so much time pass! I always try to remind myself that it's so much easier to write frequent and short blog posts than wait forever and feel like I'm writing a novel, but then time gets away from me... Anyways, I'll try to be concise!

Nadine is almost 7 weeks old now! I can't believe how fast it has gone. She has started smiling, which is adorable. I haven't caught it on camera yet, but I'll keep trying. The cutest is when she does big smiles, which start out like a yawn. It's like she's figuring out how to do it. She has also started looking at toys more, and just this week started reaching for toys. She doesn't do it all that often, but she has a butterfly attached to her carseat that she stares at and sometimes grabs. It has helped a teensy bit with car trips. Nadine HATES being in the car. She usually cries/screams when she's in her carseat. It's so pitiful. Usually it gets better and worse as we drive so she's not just fussing the entire trip, but once she gets going, she means business. She is definitely more intense than Roxanne was at this age in that she wants to be held a lot. She is starting to be OK with sitting in her bouncy seat or swing for short periods, but still only about 10 minutes at most. Usually it's only about 2. :) I wonder if maybe she's a little more needy because she gets dragged around so much. With Roxanne, it was easy to just stay home and snuggle and nurse most of the time, but with a 3.5 year old at home, we've got errands to run and places to go to avoid cabin fever. Either way, it's definitely not awful by any means, just noticeably different than her big sister.

Roxanne is love love loving pre-school. She gets to take yoga, Spanish and music classes as part of her weekly schedule with school, and we also signed her up for pre-ballet on Wednesdays after school. She had her first ballet class on Wednesday and has asked me about five times a day since then when she gets to have ballet class again. She loves all of her various teachers, and spends a lot of time at school drawing pictures for them. She spends hours every day at school and at home working on drawings. She also loves gluing sequins (and anything else she can get her mitts on) onto her drawings. I bought her a pack of confetti/sequins a while back at Target and she loves taking the hearts and butterflies and flowers and incorporating them into her pictures. She'll draw herself and then glue the sequins onto her dress in the picture. Or she'll glue flower shapes in a straight line along the bottom of the page and then draw in a stem and leaves. She loves displaying her artwork and tells us it's an "art festival." She loves making cards for everyone, and practices writing names. Since she's a lefty, a lot of her letters are backwards and she writes names (including hers) out of order. But she draws a line before writing and so at least her letters are all on a line.

Together, the girls are adorable. Poor Nadine gets Roxanne an inch from her face all the time, but she seems to kind of like it. She smiles at her sometimes, and always stops what she's doing to look around when she hears Roxanne talking or yelling (which is ALL THE TIME). Roxanne always tells me she wants to play with Nadine or hold her. She loves giving her kisses, too. We have to work on not giving Nadine toys all the time, even though I always tell her Nadine is too little for things like stuffed animals. But at least it's that and not eye-poking or roughness. Roxanne tells me "You have me, and when Nadine gets bigger, you'll have two kids! Isn't that great?" So I know she has trouble understanding about Nadine being a baby versus a big girl, etc. In that same vein, she'll tell me "When Nadine gets bigger I'll have a sister!" Still, we're very grateful that Roxanne loves Nadine and hasn't had any aggression towards her.