Radio Silence?

Six months.  Plus or minus.  Ack!!!  All I can say is that life is busy with two little ones, a full time job, and graduate school!  Instead of trying to go back and fill in all of the lovely things I've missed (sorry Nadine!) I'll try to just update on what is happening now, a week-ish before our littlest is turning ONE!

Nadine is now walking, and getting less wobbly every day.  She is so proud of herself as she gets from one point to the next, and it's so fun to watch.  She is very chirpy and chatty most of the time, although it's still hard to identify specific words.  She uses "uh-oh" correctly and says it in a very adorable way.  She says "Da-da" to Justin, but also uses a variation of it when she's waving goodbye (sounds slightly more like "di-di").  She says "mama," but usually in a whiny voice when she wants to nurse.  Sigh.  She seems to have a greeting for our cat BooBoo, and they have a love/hate relationship.  As in, Nadine loves BooBoo and BooBoo mostly hates Nadine.  They have had a few spats, but Nadine doesn't seem to mind the scratches much.  She is, as Justin calls her, "a good sport."  She gets knocked around quite a bit by all of the older kids, and she really takes most of it in stride.  She wants to be right in there with them, and loves to laugh at their silly antics, and only cries when she gets a toy taken away, or gets genuinely hurt.  She is such a sweet, lovely little thing.  She has her two bottom front teeth, and her top left one is now mostly coming through.  I'm thinking the top left will follow shortly.

We'll be celebrating Nadine's birthday at our neighborhood pool next weekend.  Just a nice low key get-together, but it means so much to us.  We had to struggle to get our little Nadine, and I couldn't be more thankful to have her.

Six Month Check-up

So Nadine turned 6 months on February 7, but she just had her check-up last week. She's doing great! She's over 18 pounds now, but she's still 75th percentile for weight and 80th for height. It's hard to believe that she's not higher, since Roxanne was always over 90th, and Nadine seems equally huge. Comparatively, Nadine is just a little peanut. She's continuing to baby talk, and says "blah bah," "ma ma" and some other sounds pretty often. She is giggling more and more now, too. Her favorite things to giggle at are always completely unexpected and random, like a poster for diabetes at the Publix Pharmacy yesterday... She has a quirky sense of humor already! She sits up really well and loves sitting on the floor and playing with toys. Her favorite toys include her Sofie giraffe teething toy (easily the best teether I've ever seen, and I highly recommend) and a Melissa and Doug wooden caterpillar. She also likes plastic rings, and enjoys waving them around her head. She absolutely loves Roxanne, and even when she's fussy, Roxanne can get her to smile. Nadine loves grabbing her hair and yanking it, but Roxanne is very sweet about it. They are such nice little sisters at this point. Here's hoping they stay that way! Justin has incorporated Nadine into their storytime most nights, and Roxanne is very giving about it and always seems to pick at least one "baby story" that she thinks Nadine will like. For her part, Nadine seems to really love story time. Hopefully we'll have two readers!

Bedtimes

Justin is such a sweet Daddy. He puts Roxanne to bed every night, and now Nadine joins in for story time. She doesn't always make it through both stories, but she definitely loves it most of the time. Roxanne is very sweet and shares his lap without complaining. And she giggles when Nadine tries to eat the book. Which always happens.
As you can see, her eyes are still blue!
She loves grabbing her toes. She gets frustrated with these footy jammies because she can't get her toes.
These are her Alice in Wonderland jammies. So cute.
She sits up really well, but only for short amounts of time. She's staring up at Roxanne's chandelier.

She's getting so big...
Sisterly empathy. Nadine is mid-scream here.
Nadine thinks Roxanne is hilarious.
Sisters.
They're both such beautiful and sweet ladies.
Blurry, but I couldn't resist.
She's doing great with tummy time. But she has figured out how to roll from her tummy back to her back or side, so it's hard to keep her up without some kind of toy, etc.
I can't believe she might crawl soon... Ack!
Again, blurry, but her face when she is watching Roxanne is just wonderful.

Where to start?!

I know, I missed blogging Roxanne's 4th birthday, Justin's 30th birthday, Christmas, and New Year. I won't try to catch up with all of that. I'll just say that all of it was wonderful. Roxanne had her party at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur (where we had her 1st birthday party) and she wanted a Christmas theme. Most of her little school buddies came, and it was perfect. Lots of fun was had by all. :) For Justin, I threw a surprise party and some of his co-workers and friends came. We celebrated Justin's big 3-0 here at home in a fairly tame way, but he WAS very surprised and everyone had a nice time showing Justin how awesome we think he is. Christmas was the usual whirlwind of visiting, gift-wrap, and happy family moments. It was beautiful to share the holiday with baby Nadine. Santa brought her some goodies, probably because Roxanne was sure to tell Santa what Nadine wanted. Always looking out for her sister! In current news, Roxanne is doing wonderfully in school, and is quite the artist. She is learning to write some letters and recognize the sounds that they make. She love love loves to sing now, too. She still sings Christmas songs constantly, but she often substitutes the words for whatever is convenient (and silly). Nadine is grabbing everything she can get her hands on, and wants to put all of it into her mouth. She is sitting on her own for short periods (like 4 seconds...) before toppling over. She wants to be in the exersaucer as much as possible. We have started her on rice cereal and some apple mixed in. We had planned to wait until 6 months, but the doctor said we could start at 4 months, and she won't really take a bottle, so we opted to start her on cereal so Justin could feed her while I'm in class Monday and Tuesday nights. She doesn't eat that much of it, but she does very well with it! She's up to 17 pounds 5 ounces now, and she is so so long! Our littlest baby is getting not so little.

Nadine in her high chair!
On the floor gym at work.
Who needs toys when you have chub toes?

Nadine eating her first cereal with Roxanne's help.

Christmas morning!
Hot chocolate on the trolley at Callaway (light show!).
We had to...
Roxanne's real birthday night cupcake.
The night before Christmas; literally.
Decorating Santa's cupcake.

Roxanne was an angel in her school's Christmas chapel.
At her birthday party.
Yet another birthday party at which she cried at cake time. She thought she had been skipped for a juice box. Sigh.

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!