Date with Daddy in Aggieland

Ella was lucky enough to go on a date with Daddy to college station for the day.  She has been talking about going to college station for weeks now and has been so excited.  As an added bonus, her cousins Lily and Walker also came.  Ella had a blast being with outside all day with her Daddy!  I'm sad that Gracie and I missed it.

I'd say it was definitely a successful trip - she passed out the minute they got in the car to come home.

 

When I put Ella to bed that night I asked her "what was your favorite thing about today?"  

Her response - "Daddy" 

I'd say that was one good day.

Easter 2012

Who's Who?

When Gracie was born we all thought she looked identical to her big sister.  Over the past two months, though they still favor one another, Gracie has definitely developed her own look.  I know I'm their momma, but I think they are the most beautiful little girls ever :)

Here are my little newborns:

 

Ella - November 7, 2009

 

Gracie - February 17, 2012

Ella - 2 months

Gracie - 2 months

Ella - 2 months

 

 Gracie - 2 months

 

Ella - 2 months

 

Gracie - 2 months

One thing is certain, Gracie has a better double chin than her big sister did :)  I can't wait to go to Gracie's 2 month appointment this week so I can compare their weights and percentiles.  These girls are so much fun!

 

The things big sisters do...

and the things little sisters must tolerate.

Gracie couldn't stop looking at her new bling

 Even Gracie's giraffe got accessorized

 It's a good thing we love this big sister so much :)

Happy 2 months my littlest love

Miss Gracie,

Oh my love, how sweet you are.  I can't believe two months have passed since we brought you home.  It really does go faster the second time, as if the first baby didn't grow fast enough!

Some things about you at two months:

You have gained a whopping 4 pounds - you are a chubby girl and I ADORE your rolls.  A double chin has never looked so good!

You tend to alternate with your big sister when it comes to sleeping well at night - one night you sleep well but Ella doesn't, the next night you are up every two hours and your sister is out cold.  I guess you two are doing us a favor??  But last night you did sleep 8 hours so this Mommy couldn't be happier.

Speaking of sleeping, you've decided that 10 pm is your official bedtime and not a minute earlier.  If we put you to bed before that, you will be up in less than 30 minutes.  You were sleeping a total of about 12 hours at night - to bed at 10, up around 2, again around 5, and then you'd often go back down until 9, sometimes even 10:00.  Then you would take a good 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon.  Notice I'm using past tense. I guess you decided you were being too easy on your Mommy.  Now you are down by 10 and up by 8'ish.  And naps, well they tend to be little cat naps now days.  And here I was thinking I finally had a good sleeper on my hands.  But seriously, you already sleep better than your big sister so I'm not complaining.



I hate to jinx things, but you seem to have surpassed the fussy, gassy stage for the most part.  That is a great relief.


You are so full of smiles when you wake up in the morning - it's hands down my favorite time with you.  Ella's too.  Your big sister and I love to hold you in the mornings and see who can make you smile - you don't make us work too hard at it.  You are pretty generous with your smiles sweet girl.

You love bath time.  As soon as I lay you in the tub you start kicking your legs.  Your big sister loves to "help" but we have to watch her because sometimes "helping" means trying to pour water on you.  But as always, you're a good sport.

You still guzzle your bottles like you haven't eaten in days - maybe that's where your cheeks come from :)


Mommy has pretty much switched completely to bottles - I couldn't seem to keep up with this growing girl once you hit your 6 week growth spurt.


You are by far the best little snuggler (besides your big sister, of course).  When you are sleepy you lay on my shoulder and just nuzzle.  When you can't fall asleep there you just keep moving your head from side to side trying to get comfortable.  That's when Mommy turns to the yoga ball.  It gets you every time.


You hate the swing, much like your sister did when she was a baby.  You will, however, sit in your bouncy seat while Mommy puts on makeup or blow dries her hair.  I am so grateful for this.


You are only 2 months but are barely fitting into your 3 month clothes - gotta love those cute rolls!


Here are some of my favorite pictures of you at 2 months:

My little love, we have enjoyed you so much over the past two months.  You've added so much joy to our home.  I can't wait to watch your little personality develop and see all the fun things you will soon learn.  I pray you will continue to be a healthy and happy little girl.  May God continue to bless us with your sweet smiles.  We love you to the moon and back.

Sisters

There's nothing better than having a sister.  To this day, mine are my best friends and I'm not sure what I'd ever do without them. 

The moment we found out that our first baby was a girl, all I could think was how I hoped she would have a sister one day.  God answered my prayers with sweet miss Gracie.

Ella had been looking forward to having Gracie come "home from the hospital" for awhile before she actually made her debut.  I was a little concerned because Ella was insistent that she was going to have TWO baby sisters - Layla AND Gracie.  No matter how much I tried convincing her, she never waivered.  I'd say to her "Ella, are you going to help Mommy take care of your baby sister when she gets here?"  Her response was always something like "Mommy, you can hold Layla and I will hold Gracie." I was worried she would be one disappointed girl come c-section day when she only got to meet one baby.  Thankfully, after she met her little sister, she seemed content with just one baby.

I can't wait to see them interact more.  For now, their interactions consist mostly of Ella getting as close as she possibly can to Gracie and saying "hiiiiiii gracie!!" which sounds more like "greasy."  It's the best.  Poor Gracie just cringed in the beginning.  She's grown rather used to her big sister now.  One thing is certain, Gracie does love to hear her sister's voice.  If she's crying, Ella's voice can sometimes calm her down - except when its about 10 decibels too loud.

I've tried so hard to get a good picture of the two of them, but most of them usually end up like this: (but that's ok, I've decided these are the priceless ones after all)

Not sure what kind of face Gracie is making

Looks like Gracie is taking a punch to the face

Ella was saying "Mommy she's leaning on me"

Kisses are endless around here

Ella "helping get Gracie warm" - at least she left her face uncovered!

Ella LOVES to hold Gracie's hand - we're working hard on doing this gently.

Needless to say, there is not a lack of love between these girls.  

The adventures of having two little girls...

These days in the Nahidi house are some rather crazy days. I have to laugh at our adventures, because if I don't, I find myself getting easily frustrated with the chaos, the noise, and the lack of any kind of routine. So I am trying hard to laugh, to soak up my girls in this stage of life, because I know that like each stage we've gone through until now, they pass far too quickly.

For instance,

Ella has decided that the pantry is her new personal kitchen and often when I'm nursing Gracie, I can find my eldest hiding out in the pantry "pretending" as she says. In her little mind "pretending" has involved emptying an entire oatmeal cannister, pouring out a bag of rice into small tupperware bowls, peeling the labels off of far too many cans (we are about to be having "surprise" dinners as we begin using these canned goods!), and peeling onions. Maybe it's sleep deprivation preventing my mind from working well, but I haven't figured out how to block off the pantry just yet. There's no lock on the door and our many many baby gates are too big for that door. To prove my point, a friend suggested the child-proof door knob covers - now why didn't I think of that 3 or 4 weeks ago??! No sleep I tell you, it can make your brain do crazy things, or in my case, just cause your brain to be extra slow at problem solving (not super helpful to this new momma of two!)

Ella has been able to open the fridge and freezer herself for quite some time now.  This can be a problem when I'm nursing - she manages to open the gate I've set up to contain her and rummage in the fridge or freezer.  One day, I walk into the kitchen after changing Gracie's diaper and imagine my surprise as I find this:

Realizing she'd been caught, she looks at me and says "she wants ice cream Mommy."  Oh yes, I see that my dear.

Other things my busy two year old has been doing: she's pretty much potty trained herself with zero pushing from me.  Before Gracie was born, Ella had been using the potty on her own occasionally, but not consistently. I didn't want to push her too far because I was afraif she'd lose interest. Also, many had told me that even if she was potty trained before her baby sister came, she'd likely revert back once the baby came, so I stood back and just let her do her thing. These days, however, I find her running around fully clothed but missing one thing - her diaper. I usually don't notice this until I've stepped in a puddle she's left me (okay that's only happened twice). Or more often than not, I walk into the bathroom and find this:

a diaper on the floor and no toddler in sight. She just sheds that diaper as soon as I'm not looking. If I'm lucky, its just a wet diaper, but sometimes this Momma isn't that lucky. Sometimes they're dirty diapers laying on the floor. Then I have to track down my toddler and do some cleaning and some discussing as to why we must ask mommy to help with the dirties. On one particularly special occasion (Grammie was lucky enough to witness this one), I walk into my bedroom to find Ella completely naked watching a cartoon and a huge, I mean HUGE, pile of poop on the floor. The diaper was MIA. I couldn't really blame her for wanting to take that one off! So now I find myself cleaning up poop and "peep" off of the floor from a toddler and two puppies. Someone remind me that I will miss these days please ;-)

Ella has also decided that she wants to dress herself.  If she can managed to get Daddy upstairs with her, she usually comes down looking something like this:

The shirt/pants might change, but the common denominator is layers.  No idea why this girl likes to wear 12 layers when we live in this weather.

Her other obesession is shoes.  I can honestly say she did not get this from me.  I think we can blame her aunties for this love.  Ella probably changes her shoes at least 20 times a day.  I'm not kidding.  You can usually find her in the laundry room floor switching out her shoes.  Sometimes she has on matching ones, often not.  But one thing is certain, they are almost always on the wrong feet.  (Only lately has she allowed me to switch them for her!)

Needless to say, Ella has not allowed herself to fall prey to boredom while Mommy nurses Gracie. I'm sure this next week will be full of even more adventures in our house.  It's a little crazy, but I wouldn't trade these days for anything, tired or not.