3 Months

Time is passing fast even though it may not seem like it day to day.  Clara is now 3 months old yesterday.  Time flies when you are having fun or when every part of your time is taken up with caring for 2 kids under 2 years.  Clara has definitely been more challenging than Esther as a baby.  She likes to be held a lot and does not like being put down very much although she is much better than she used to be. She does not like her baby swing and cries when we put her in it.  She struggles big time going to sleep,  it requires us walking around with her and bouncing her for at least 15 minutes.  But things are definitely getting better with time.  She is now most nights only waking up 1 time which is very manageable.  She is also starting to smile and make lots of sweet faces.  She loves having her sister close to her talking to her and messing with her.  It seems like the harder Esther bounces her or pats her, the more she likes it.  I hope they grow to love each other a lot and get along really well. Clara started daycare last week at the same place Esther goes to.  It was hard for Margo to leave her but it is going well,  they have not kicked her out yet for crying too much so that is good. This past Sunday we did baby dedication at our church which was nice.  Clara is still really really big.  At the doctor yesterday she weighed in at 16 lbs 11 oz.  Speaking of the doctor,  that is what we did for her 3 month birthday,  took her to the doctor because she is sick.  She has bronchiolitis and is now on an inhaler for a week or so.  She is very congested and having difficulty sleeping. Esther is also sick with a virus and runs a high fever off and on for the past few days.  It has been real fun around our house the past few days.  Let me tell you raising two kids under the age of two is no walk in the park.  

Here are some pics of Clara the other day and all her faces. 

Esther Playing With Clara Video

Here is a little video of Esther and Clara. Turn the volume up. Esther is playing with and giggling at Clara.  And at the end Esther says her name for Margo.  

Something in the Water

It seems like there is something in the water at our church and with our friends.  I don't know the official numbers but there have been approximately fifteen babies born since June at our church.  Even before that there were tons of kids being born.  I think there are like nine kids at church that will be in Esther's grade in school.  There were four babies born in ten days when Clara was born.  It is crazy.  We are going to have an awesome youth group in a few years.  Specifically we had several really close friends pregnant.  We had five girls in our community group all pregnant at the same time. Have I mentioned how crazy it is.  Back in June we got a picture of four of the girls in our group together.  Here they are back in June in order of due date...

And here they are last week with the kiddos.....

Big Update

It has been a long time since I have posted on the ol' blog. It seems like we have had lots going on but I am not sure what.  People have been rioting in the streets for me to give an update on our girls so here it is.

Clara is growing like kudzu.  She will be two months old in a couple days.  I am not going to lie,  the first 4-6 weeks were tough. Esther was a really easy baby, hardly ever cried, ate good,  was happy being put down anywhere, etc.  We thought we were just really good parents.  Turns out that is not the case.  Clara likes to cry, a lot.  She wants to be held all the time,  and is not a fan of taking a bottle most of the time.  There were several times I wondered what have we done,  and I threatened Margo that I was going to take Esther and get out of Dodge for a few months.  But luckily she has been doing better the past couple weeks.   She is sleeping 3-4+ hours at a time at night.  She is starting to let us put her down in her bouncy seat for 20 or so minutes without throwing a fit,  and she is just overall a lot happier.  She is smiling and cooing a lot. And she is getting big. At the doctor visit last week she weighed over 14 pounds which puts her in the 50th percentile for a 5 month old (she is not 2 months yet).  She does not even register on the 2 month percentile.  She does not look fat because she is really tall.  She just looks like a normal 5 month old.  We had a follow-up with a cardiologist to check out her heart again last week and everything looked perfectly normal so we are happy about that.  They don't think she will have any more problems.  We may have some problems with our pocketbook though, we got her bill for being in the NICU for 5 days.  It is not cheap.  

Esther is doing really good.  She is awesome and difficult.  She is learning all kinds of things like crazy.  She is very independent and pushes the boundaries like crazy.  She says tons of new words and learns new ones everyday,  last night I taught her the word clavicle just for the heck of it.  She will say her numbers (1-9) and knows them by sight,  she knows some colors,  and some letters.  She knows her name and lots of other peoples names.  We think she is so smart.  She loves to play outside and play with all the animals.  But she also likes to whine a lot and do things we tell her not to so it is not all roses with her.  She can really get on your nerves at times.  She is a typical toddler. 

Now for some pics. I will try to put up some videos later in the week.  

Crazy

Everyone has been asking for more pictures.  Sorry for the slow updates,  things are a little crazy around here. We have found having two kids under 18 months makes life really busy and does not leave a lot of time for extra things like blogging. Last week was ridiculous, besides having my grannie's funeral,  Esther had an ear infection, sinus infection, and pinkeye.  And I had a viral infection of some sort and got pinkeye from Esther. Needless to say it was not a fun week.  

Clara is still doing good,  she is a month old which is crazy. She weighed 11 pounds and 5 ounces at her checkup on Tuesday. She is still a big one. She is a typical baby,  has good days and bad days.  Cries a lot at times,  sleeps good sometimes and bad sometimes, etc. I will say again that things are crazy with two kids,  but we are surviving. 

Here are the first cousins on Josh's side right before Christmas.

Here they are with the grandparents.

Here she is today.

Here is Esther letting Clara talk on her play cell phone.

Grannie

Christmas this year was very rememberable but in a sad way.  My (Josh) grannie died at her home on Sunday morning.  She was 87.  She was the last of my grandparents still alive.
She was the classic grandmother.  She was very sweet, loved her family, cooked good food, gave good hugs, etc.  She lived in Little Rock so I did not see her super often but always loved my time with her.  She almost always made me chicken and dumplings when I went to visit because she knew it was my favorite.  Other family members would always show up also when I came because they knew Grannie would be making me chicken and dumplings and her's were the best. She also loved to play games and was always up for playing them with her grandchildren.  She was especially good at Boggle and I always loved playing Rack-o with her when I was younger. We will miss her.

Family

I know, I know, it has been too long since I posted some pictures of Clara. It seems that having two kids under 17 months makes things very busy. It seems like we don't have time to do hardly anything. We are very thankful for the days that Esther is at daycare during this time that we are off work. It helps us to rest and catch up.

Speaking of Esther, she is doing pretty good with Clara. She is overly helpful most of the time. She hands us the pacifier at least 100 times a day. Some of the stuff she does is very cute like helping us to burp the baby. And it is awesome when we go in to get her up in the morning and the first thing she does is say "baby?, baby?". She also gives her kisses and rubs her head. But there are also times when she is a little too rough because she does not realize just how careful she needs to be.
Clara is doing good. At her check up last Friday, everything looked good. She was within an ounce of being back to her birth weight. She is starting to be awake for longer stretches in the day which is good. She is a good crier for sure, she can really get going.

Here we are the day we brought Clara home

Margo's parents

Margo's dad with the girls

Josh's Parents

 Margo's grandmother

The cousins (Margo's side)

Sweet sleeping Clara

Silly Esther