February Family Fun

Unlike last month, a lot of exciting and notable things have happened this month. First, I would like to announce that Chris found out where he'll be stationed next. South Korea! We don't know where yet in Korea as there are about 8 different places to be stationed over there. He graduates here in mid-April and probably won't leave for Korea until June. Hopefully that will give us time to sort out the stuff we will keep with us while the rest goes in storage, and also have a vacation to visit family in the northeast. It doesn't look likely that the military will pay for the girls and I to move over with him. We'll have to be apart for a couple of months, but then we are hoping to be able to work it out that we can rent a furnished apartment and spend the rest of his year long tour there together. I'm looking forward both to the time to spend with family and the exciting experience of living (or at least visiting) Korea with Chris. What an adventure! Seoul is actually larger than NYC, so we're really excited about living in or near such a large city. The more we learn about it, the more exciting it becomes.

Seoul, South Korea

The next year is going to be quite exciting for our little family. It'll be strange packing up all of our stuff and putting it in storage, living off of the bare minimum, but it will be an adventure for sure. I love living the adventure of life with my sweet husband and giving our children these unique experiences (though they may not really remember this one so much.)

February not only brought us answers as to where we are going next, but it also brought us wonderful times visiting with family. In mid-February, Chris's parents came to visit. It was so nice to spend time with them and to have them meet Maddie. Claire of course adores her grammy and pop pop. Poor grammy couldn't even go to the bathroom without Claire staying by her side. Claire was in heaven.

Claire and her grammy watching a movie together

They left for Dallas on Thursday morning and we followed them up Friday after Chris was done with work. Chris had a 3 day weekend which we enjoyed spending in Dallas with his parents, Aunt Shirley, Uncle Danny, brother, Jamie and sister in-law, Kendra. Kendra happened to have a work conference in Dallas the following week. It was a wonderful opportunity to all get together. We also got to meet our new niece, who was born a month before Maddie (though they were due a week and a half apart.) I am so blessed to have such wonderful family and just loved the time we spent together. Unfortunately, Claire was sick with a fever one day while we were there, but it didn't stop her from having too much fun. Here are some of the pictures of our visit.

Maddie and Alannah

Best buds already. :)

Claire with her baby cousin and sister. Give them a year or two and they'll all be playing together. :)

Aunt Shirley got Claire this princess umbrella (she's been wanting an umbrella for a while), and this cute outfit (which she is wearing over the outfit she already had on.) Maddie also was given an outfit with a matching shirt. Claire is one happy girl. A girl can never have too many tutus. :)

This kitty was Claire's best friend that weekend. She played with him, talked to him, and basically followed/ chased him around the house the whole weekend.

This is one happy girl with the people (and cat) she adores most. She just adores her daddy and of course her Uncle Danny. If she wasn't following the cat around the house, she was following her Uncle Danny. :)

At the end of January/ beginning of February, I FINALLY finished my cross stitch that I made for Maddie. I was working on it diligently since the end of September. Claire picked out which one I would make for Maddie and unfortunately, she chose one that is 11x14 unlike the nice easy 5x7 one I made for her when she was born. I'm glad I don't have to spend all my free time working on this anymore, and I'm really pleased with how it looks on the wall in the girls' room.

This is Claire's.

Here's just a random picture of Claire. She looks so grown up and looks like she could be a model. Isn't she just beautiful? She's even accessorized with a Hello Kitty candy necklace. :)

After we had Maddie, I was expecting to have some kind of regression with Claire. Everyone warns you of this. To my happy surprise, it didn't have. After 7-8 weeks, I thought I was in the clear. I was wrong. About that time, Claire started regressing in her potty training. She was having accidents all of the time even though she had been accident free for weeks! I felt like she was just being lazy and that she knew better. I tried not to get upset, but after a few days of multiple accidents a day, I lost it. I decided I needed to do so me research. I had been trying to push Claire to do big girl things like go to the bathroom by herself because I knew she could. It made my life a lot easier, especially since I was sleep deprived. When children have a new baby sibling though, they tend to want to go back to more baby-like things and should be allowed to do so. Once I went back to making accidents no big deal, and help her whenever she wanted me to, things pretty much immediately started getting better. Yea for the internet! I was afraid this was going to last a long time. She still has tantrums and whining more than she had before Maddie, but we're working on that. I read that that is common as they see their baby sibling cry and get a response so they try to do the same. It's slowly getting better. I'm just grateful that she still adores her little sister. She loves to hold her, talk and sing to her, and her favorite game is having Maddie (with me holding her) chase her around the house. I also help Maddie do the talking. :) So much fun.

Here they are watching a movie together. I love how Maddie is leaning against Claire, even if it's not intentional.

Claire loves to play with the laundry baskets. She lines them up with other toys and creates train-like boats. She wanted Maddie to join her while I pushed the two of them around in the basket. So sweet. :)

Maddie is also growing and developing quickly and well! She is such a sweet, happy, and content baby. We are really blessed. She is sleeping better at night. We got a Fisher Price rocking sleeper. It's the only way I can get her to sleep without being with me or the bouncy seat. It isn't totally flat, but at an incline which is what Maddie likes. It also is closer to her on the sides than the bassinet is. She has been sleeping through the night more frequently because of it. Ahhh. She doesn't sleep through the night every night, but I'll take it whenever I can! Yesterday I had to wake her up at 7AM to feed her after putting her down at 10:30 the night before.

Part of the solution is that she has discovered her fingers. She used to try to suck her fist, but was unsatisfied. She tried to such her thumb once, but ever since then, has shown that she'd rather suck her pointer finger. It puts her right to sleep, and she's just so sweet.

This picture reminds me a lot of the thumb sucking pictures we have of Claire.

Maddie has been smiling more and more. There is just nothing better. And for the first time, yesterday, on Feb. 29th, I got my first laughs. Well, kind of. You'll see the video. Here are some of my favorite smiling pictures and her weekly pictures.

7 weeks old - she looks like she's going to go jogging. I LOVE that dimple.

8 weeks old - her lips are pursed like that because she was talking to me. :)

2 months/ 9 weeks

10 weeks old

"Look, I can nibble on my hand and lift my shirt at the same time! Isn't my belly cute?"

While we were in Dallas, Maddie decided to roll over for the first time! I have to admit, I'm bad at regularly giving her tummy time, but I've noticed a great improvement in her head control and neck muscles just by when I'm holding her. I gave her some tummy time in Dallas, and at a day shy of 2 months old, she rolled over from front to back twice! I got the camera out to record it a third time, but then she wouldn't do it. Crazy kid.

Going along with rolling over, she's also doing a great job at holding up her head when she's on her belly. See? (Oh, and see how her hair is growing back too?)

Maddie's legs are also getting really strong. She can now stand quite steadily for a long time while I just hold her hands. What a big baby already!

Maddie with her daddy

Random picture of Maddie sleeping on me. I love how she props her head on her hands while she sleeps. Claire did too, and still does sometimes.

Finally, February brings Chris's birthday! It's always fun to celebrate the birth of the one whom I adore and love! We enjoyed celebrating his birthday together by going out to eat, having his orange dreamsicle cake Claire and I made (one of my favorites too), and opening presents. My parents got him a book all about Seoul. He's learning a lot from it and is getting more and more excited about going. Claire got him a stuffed frog. For some reason, she has thought her daddy needed one for quite a while. I got him a Paul Cardall cd (one of his new favorites in relaxing music), a "Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey book, a healthy cookbook (yes, I know we already have way too many cookbooks), and a Phillips ipod docking station/ radio/ alarm clock. It got great reviews rivaling the sound quality of Bose but significantly cheaper. He's been wanting something to play music on in the bathroom while he gets ready, and I thought since it had such good sound quality and is small and light weight, it would be perfect to take with him to Korea.

Here he is opening his docking station. He's kinda happy. :)

Here are some videos of my beautiful girls. The first is of Maddie yesterday. I was trying to video, and get her to smile and laugh at the same time. The laughs are more like fun sighs, but it's close enough to laughter for me! The second is of Claire dancing for us and then bowing. She loves to perform and dance or put on shows for us. In Dallas, she even used the fireplace as a stage. The last is of Claire singing "I am a Child of God." She is just too sweet. <3