5 1/2 Months-Daycare Drop-outs-Lilly's Movie Debut

The title pretty much says it all. The girls have made it to 5 1/2 months and after they got sick last week, we re-evaluated and convinced my brother's girlfriend Jen to come and work for us! She's going to be watching the girls full-time at least through the summer when we can explore some other options. So, we lasted less than a month in daycare...hopefully this isn't a sign of what's to come. Wearing their "1st Born" and "Runner Up" onsies that came from our neighbors--too cute!

You know what they say--literacy starts early. Here's Addy learning to read...

Lastly, here is our first attempt at putting video online. I told you her laugh was pretty incredible...

Still Puking...

January has brought us some firsts....our first bug, which happened to also be alligned with our first below 0 degree temperatures in Indiana. This led to our first January visit to the doctor and that meant our first opportunity to wear our snow suits....

Needless to say, they both had temperatures when we got to the doctor, but I don't think it was from the flu, just being slightly over-layered. On a more serious note, they hadn't been keeping food down for days and they wanted to check them for dehydration and if they had maintained their weight. We weren't dehydrated, but both were down a few ounces in weight, but after pissing them off by digging in their ears to rule out an ear infection that could have been prolonging the virus, they sent us home with little advice other than to keep doing what we were doing. So, we've bought stock in Pedialyte and we are trucking through.

During this fiasco, we had a visit from Aunty Yen...also known as Jenny, who was my graduate school roommate and a dear friend. She's single but I've always known she'll make a great mom when she finds the right guy. I'm just pretty sure that her visit to Indiana delayed her having children anytime in the next decade. Here's a picture with her (I know they look happy and overall they were the happiest sick babies you've seen, but we cleaned a lot of carpet).

Here are other pictures I hadn't had the opportunity to post earlier in the month...

Uncle Jon is holding Lilly and his girlfriend Jen is holding Addy. They are wearing outfits sent from Joyce and Norman in England--her son Michael is an avid blog reader, so please print this picture out for your mom!

Becky and the girls...Cat, they lost, the jerseys have officially been put away.
I couldn't resist posting this for anyone that thinks because she has red hair, she looks like me. This is Lilly with Dad--they even look alike in their sleep.

5 Months and We Caught A Bug...

I promise you that they smile and laugh, just rarely when the camera is taking their picture! Oh, and let me tell you their laughs are enough to melt your heart. The other day I was taking them both to daycare and Addy was cracking herself up in the backseat and I was crying laughing just listening to her. Addy has this throaty sound that makes her sound like a stalling lawnmower and Lilly, well, she's got this pitchy squeal with the occasional snort.

Lilly caught a bug earlier in the week and was throwing up for a couple bottles, but a good night sleep made her all better the next day. Well, yesterday the same happened for Addy and we thought she was fine today, so we took them to daycare this morning only to get the call that she'd been "kicked out" because she'd thrown up 2 rounds of bottles there. After talking to my pediatrician and realizing it had been over 12 hours since we'd had a wet diaper, they were concerned about dehydration, so we took her in. We were there for almost 3 hours, literally feeding her clear liquids, waiting for her to pee. After a couple episodes where it didn't stay down, if finally went through her and she actually peed all over me and then gave me, the doctor and dad that lawnmower laugh. So, thankfully we averted having to go to the hospital for IV fluids and luckily we have Grandma Jody on call to assist us tomorrow, so I don't have to take a day off work. She'll be good as new in no time. While we were at the doctor's we were commended on the fact that we made it to the 5 month mark and they are just getting their first "real" illness...

While there, we also put our babes on the scale...

Addy--15.25 pounds
Lilly--17.5 pounds

Lilly, snuggling with boyfriend Jacob Dumas

Who's in charge around here?

Sunday afternoon: Uncle Jon says he will come over and visit the girls (also known as watch football and eat our food), so I decide to run some errands and this is what my family room looks like when I come home. Notice, Lilly is the only one with her eyes open, contently watching football on TV...

Anyway, it was an average week and I still feel like I'm recovering from one of those emotional hangovers as Wednesday was a pretty tough day for me. The girls however, adapted pretty well. The daycare loves them and their teacher Ms. Barb has a daughter in the room next door who is almost 5. She drew me an "I love Addy & Lilly" picture on Friday. She also told her mom she wanted Addy to come home with them. Ms. Barb asked why Addy and not Lilly and the little girl responded, "Because Addy smells like doughnuts." Makes sense to me, why wouldn't the 5 year old want to take home the baby that smells like doughnuts? Now why Addy smells like doughnuts, I haven't yet figured out. All in all, we survived and we are doing it all over again this next week.

What a long strange year it has been....

Well, here we are the first day of 2008. Jeremy and I have spent the last couple days saying, my a lot has changed in a year, eh?? We opted to forgo our tradition of finding refuge in a cabin in Brown County this year, primarily because the crowd of 7 people that went last year added 4 babies to the picture in the last 12 months, so we all thought staying closer to home would be a better choice. So, we did. We went over the the Cahill's and since even the 2 mile drive isn't the best option after a couple cocktails, we allowed the girls to have their first sleepover with Mallory. I'm sure this is the first of many and all the girls were a bit confused having their breakfast bottle with company!

The holidays were a blur, but we had a blast. A couple first for the girls, they had their first night over at Grandma & Grandpa Ash's house (twice) and they had their first Christmas loading in on some pretty good loot. We've spent the last week or so playing with their new toys and preparing for the dreaded day...tomorrow is their first day in daycare. Yep, Grandma Linda has returned to Pittsburgh to regain control of her life after being our part-time daycare provider for 2 months (yes, she commuted from Pittsburgh to do it). Tomorrow, I go back to work full-time after 5 months of a combination of full-time and part-time leave. My boss and students are saying "It's about time" and I'm saying "Where did the time go?" So, today, I'm mentally preparing and trying to get a positive attitude about the whole thing, but it will be a struggle.

As far as resolutions, Jeremy and I are going to try and trade in our bad language for some better, more kid appropriate words. We thought this would be a good one as it won't be long before Addy & Lilly are talking and we are going to try and avoid their first word being f#*%. We are also back on the bandwagon, committing to losing my last 10 lbs or so from my pregnancy and tone a bit while Jeremy loses some of that sympathy weight he put on for me.

This is another deer in headlights pose, apparently the paparazzi was a little too much for them.
Mallory, Lilly & Addy hanging on the couch after their breakfast bottles.