Quite Possibly the Greatest Toddler Toy Ever

With toddlers you can tell how popular a toy is by how much they cry when you have to stop playing with it. Well, when we stopped playing yesterday (after 30 minutes straight of playing with it) there was lots of crying and gnashing of teeth.  We had seen one of these a while back on a tv show or movie and I thought to myself, we have to get one. It is a ride on "roller coaster" for kids 2-5. They are kind of expensive new but yesterday I happened across one on craigslist for a lot cheaper.  I think I was more excited than anybody about it.
Esther loved it and she learned how to do it all by herself so that is nice. I wish we had a longer paved area so the car could go even further. When she gets older I may set up on the slope of a downhill just to see what happens. Anyway here is a little video of her playing with it last night.

She's a Biggin

We had Clara's 6 month check up at the doctor today.  It went good.  Basically, she is big, really big.  She weighs 21lbs 13oz and was 28.5 inches long.  She is approximately in the 115% for weight and height and 95% for head circumference.  She is the average size of a 12-14 month old.   Otherwise she is doing really good.  She is meeting all of her developmental milestones: rolling, sitting on her own, grabbing stuff, transferring things between hands, etc.  She is also super happy these days and gives really good happy faces.  The nurse and doctor were loving her big smiles.  She is ahead of where Esther was at this age with these developmental skills and she is ahead of where Esther was in eating baby food.
This past weekend we had to move Clara up to a bigger car seat and out of a infant car seat.  We had actually already had to get her out of our infant car seat at 5 months because she had outgrown it's size restrictions.  We borrowed a bigger sized infant seat from a friend but she outgrew that one also.  Ours she outgrew because of weight and the other one she outgrew because she was too long.  As a comparison Esther was 10 months old before she outgrew our smaller infant car seat (double Clara's age).  Anyway,  we had to buy a new set of car seats.  Clara is now in Esther's old convertible car seat.  Here are some comparison pics of when they first started using this seat.  They weighed about the same in these pics but Esther is thicker/wider and Clara is taller.......but Esther is 4 months older!!!!

Here is Esther at 10 months

Clara at 6 months in the same seat.  

And I decided to take a picture of Esther today for a comparison of how much she has grown.  She is almost 23 months old. 

6 months!

I can't believe it, but Clara is 6 months old today! I know it sounds cliche, but it has gone so fast. The first three months were really rough; Clara was not very happy about life! But now she is a very happy, fun baby. A few highlights/milestones:

• She has mastered sitting up in the past week or so. She likes to sit up and look around and play with her toys. 

Sitting up

• She rolls and scoots all over the place.
• Sleeping through the night (usually!). She goes to bed about 8:30 and sleeps until 6:30.
• She LOVES Esther. She would watch her all day long. She loves when Esther talks to her and hugs on her. She loves to grab handfuls of Esther's hair!
• Likes being outside. She likes watching Esther play and watching the dogs and cats. She loves it when the animals come close enough for her to pet/grab their hair.
• She has started sucking her thumb more. She mainly does it when she is tired or hungry.

• Eating cereal and baby food (green & orange veggies) and loving it
• We weighed her at home last week and she was 22 lbs. We go to the doctor next week, so we'll get her official measurements then. She is wearing 9-12 month clothes!

Clara's birthday!

One month old

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

Happy baby!

Cutest Kids Ever? Maybe

Thought I would put up a video and pic until I have time for a real update.

This is Esther blowing bubbles yesterday evening (check out Clara hanging out in the bumbo in the background).  She loves blowing bubbles, so much so that she even pretends blowing bubbles all the time when we are playing inside. Warning:  this is super cute.



I thought maybe the bubble solution tasted good since it did not seem to bother her so I tried it.  It tasted terrible.

And here is a cute pic of Clara while we were outside yesterday.

Return of the Soap Box

It has been a long time since I have posted something on here that was soap boxish.  I used to do it a whole lot more often before we had the kiddos.  And most of you may not care or want to here my thoughts on current topics but I like to do it and it is my blog so I am going to anyway.
Over the past month or so there has been a couple big news stories about parenting, specifically mothering (see it kind of relates to the kids).  The first a few weeks ago was some person saying Mitt Romney's wife never had a real job.  This started the stay at home mom vs working mom debate and which is better.  Then last week, Time Magazine, trying to get someone to actually be interested in their magazine but a shock and awe picture of a 3 year old nursing a mom.  This picture and related article started the debate about attachment parenting, extended breast feeding, etc and which style of mothering is best.
Today, I came across a blog article that summed up my feelings on these issues pretty well so I thought I would pass it along for you all to read if you are interested.   Here is a link to the article,  please click on it and read it.....http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-howerton/mommy-wars_b_1510807.html

Mother's Day

In honor of Mother's Day I thought I (Margo) would write a post. It has been almost a month since an update on the girls. Our days are very busy taking care of two babies, work, church, farm, garden, hanging out with friends, etc. I think we are finally getting the hang of two kids and we are able to get out and do a little more now.

Esther is almost 22 months old. She talks all the time now and amazes us with all the things she knows. She is very silly and constantly cracks us up with things she says and does. She is very busy and never sits still. She loves to be outside. She goes out with Josh most evenings and plays in the garden, roams the pasture, swings, chases the dogs, digs in the sandbox, etc. She almost always throws a fit when it is time to come inside! She loves to help--unload the dishwasher, help with laundry, throw stuff away, bring us things. They tell us that at school she loves to help her teachers too. She is doing really well with Clara. She is eager to give her toys, talk to her, give her hugs, give her kisses, try to pick her up :), etc. Though we still have to constantly remind her to be gentle with her. Her hugs often turn into tackles and her pats turn into hits; though Clara usually doesn't seem to mind! Whenever Clara cries she will say, "Cla (Clara) sad." then she'll go over to Clara and say, "It's ok, it's ok." It is very sweet.

Esther wearing my shoes and "shopping"

Clara turned 5 months old last week. She is still a big girl. We weighed her last week and she was 21 lbs, making her about the size of a 1 year old! She is wearing 9-12 month clothes, which is nice because she can wear Esther's summer clothes from last year! We had to move her into a bigger carseat, because ours only went to 22 lbs. She has made huge strides in the past month at becoming a much happier baby. She is happy to be in her exersaucer, on her play mat, or just rolling around on the floor. Instead of crying constantly (like the first 3 months!) she now usually only cries if she is tired or hungry. Josh and I have actually been able to eat dinner at the same time, instead of one of us holding a crying baby! She is generally very smiley and talks and screeches all the time. She LOVES her sister. She would be happy to sit and watch Esther all day. She loves it when Esther hugs on her.

Playing in Esther's crib after naptime, you can tell they love each other! 

Clara hanging out in her jumparoo

It is crazy to think that two years ago we were going through fertility treatments and I so desperately wanted to be a mom. We were blessed with Esther just a couple of months later. Last year was my first Mother's Day as a mom to Esther, and I was miraculously pregnant. Our girls are such a blessing and I love being their mom.

Me and my two girls

Update on the Girls

Clara is continuing to be more aware of herself and her surroundings. I can't say that she is making a lot of progress in the being happy area or the sleeping area but she is definitely growing up. She is starting to babble more, laugh some, improving her rolling over, grabbing her feet, and more. We also recently started giving her rice cereal which she is doing really good with. Here are some recent videos of her.

Here is a video of Clara eating solid food for the first time a few days ago.


This is Clara today starting to find her voice, not sure if that is a good thing or not.


Here is a pic of Clara hanging out on a blanket outside while Esther is playing.  The cat decided to hang out with Clara.

Esther has been growing up a lot recently also.  She is getting a lot more verbal.  We can almost have little conversations with her. She is really smart and knows lots of things. She is so much fun to play with. It is not all roses though,  she has lots of tantrums and drama. Basically when she is in a good mood it is awesome but when she is in a bad mood it is not much fun.  But overall she really is great.  It is fun watching her learn new stuff everyday.
Tonight she did something that was killing us it was so funny.  First some back story,  for a long time now she talks about Clara and goes around saying "baby, baby, baby",  so Margo and I when she would do this, would sing the only Justin Bieber we know "baby, baby, baby, ohhh" to her.  We have also taught her how to call the hogs a little.  And we have been having lots of flies in the house recently that I have been killing.  So put all of this together in Esther's mind and this is what happened tonight.  She was walking around the kitchen singing "baby, baby, oh;  baby, baby, oh........(while raising her hands)woooo pig sooie, backs;  wooooo pig sooie, backs; woooo pig sooie, backs......baby, baby, oh"  after about a minute or two of that she saw a fly on the floor and (I kid you not) walked up and really fast, stomped on it and killed it.  It was amazing and totally made my day. I wish I would have got a video of all of this going down. This is the kind of stuff that I love seeing her do and makes me really happy.

Here is a pic of Esther helping me while I cut radishes that I just picked from the garden.  Every time I would drop one in the bowl she was holding, she would say thank you.

I thought this was a good pic of her also from the other day. Who needs toys when you have a basket and dad's shoes. 

4 Crazy Months

Clara is now 4 months old.  What a 4 months it has been.  Two young kids is not easy and not for the faint of heart.  I am not going to lie, Clara has not been the easiest baby.  She is definitely getting better though.  She is doing better about being put down on her play mat or in her exersaucer.  She doesn't last forever but a lot longer than she used to.  She still hates her swing and her pacifier and those are usually a parents best friends.  I think that is why she is so challenging,  the two things that usually pacify babies and put them to sleep do not work at all on her.  She is also getting a lot better about going to sleep.  We don't have to walk around and bounce her for 20-30 minutes anymore.  Usually just a few minutes and sometimes we can just rock her in our arms while sitting to get her asleep for a nap.  She is also sleeping pretty good at night.  We can just swaddle her in a blanket and rock her in the cradle and she goes to sleep.  She has slept through the night (10pm-6am) three nights in the past 2 weeks so that was awesome. She is also doing better at daycare I think.  Instead of her little sheets saying "Clara had an ok day" everyday they have been saying "Clara had a good day" sometimes.  She is smiling a lot and interacting more with us which is fun and we have got a few giggles out of her. Her smile is really cute because it is a big open mouth smile. She has also turned over from her belly to her back a few times and is close to going from back to belly.  She loves it when we sit on the floor next to her and talk to her.  She really loves her big sister although I am not sure Esther is always the biggest fan of her but she does good with her for being a toddler.  Esther loves to kiss and hug on her.

We finally got some real photographs of her done by our friend Ali (Alishia Snook Photography).  And we got some new family pics that turned out good.

Yes We Still Have a Farm

It seems like it has been forever since I wrote about our farm on the FARM of Hale blog.  I guess it only makes since that most of the blog these days is about the girls since most of our time and energy is spent on them. The main time I get to do farm stuff is on the weekend when Esther is taking a nap or lately since the time change after Esther goes to bed at 7:30, I have about 20 minutes of daylight. So here is a quick recap of the high points of farm related stuff that has happened the past several months. I have had lots of little projects also but these are the bigger, more exciting ones.

I built our shelter/barn for the animals which is attached to the chicken coop.  I planned it to be all one building and it came out pretty good.  The barn part is 12x16.  I also built a new cross fence that comes across and attaches to the barn.

Something I did last year also that I never blogged about was I built a new deck.  The old deck was in bad shape and not very useful.  I wanted a big deck to be able to host people and have parties since we don't have a good inside space to host groups of people.  Recently I finally put the finishing touches on the deck. Here are some pics.

Also the past 1-2 months our new crop of baby goats were born.  We have 8 babies so far at our house and we have 6 babies at a friends house where some of our goats are.  The crazy thing is that all the goats born at our house were boys.  I have never had that happen before.  It kind of sucks because girls are worth more and are of greater benefit if you are wanting to grow your herd.

We also got a new donkey.  We sold our donkey from last year because of the big drought we had and not wanting to buy overpriced hay for her and she wasn't broke as well as we would have liked.  Our new donkey is the daughter of my dad's donkey.  She is like 5-6 months old and her name is Sweet Pea.  She is really nice and likes to be petted.

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.