Emma is growing so fast. She is 2 and 1/2 years old and soaking in everything around her! She constantly repeats everything I say just so she can make sure she is saying the right words and learning about what I am saying. She loves counting and singing her ABC's over and over and over again.
She is becoming such a good big sister. She is learning to help Reese instead of run away from her when she cries. And if I ask her to go help Reese she'll give her a toy until she is happy. Emma can get Reese to laugh even if no one else can. Reese already loves watching Emma and interacting with her.
She is deinitely a girly-girl still. Anytime I put a dress on her she exclaims "Mommy, pretty dress!" and asks me to put a pretty dress on too. I can't wait to be able to take her to Disneyland so she can meet all the princesses. She loves them all. Emma loves wearing jewelry and after breaking so many of my necklaces, I decided to buy some of her own for her to break :).
Emma is still an extremely picky eater. It's pretty frustrating, but we're trying our best. We just got this book "deceptively delicious" that we are going to try some things out. I asked on Facebook of any friends with suggestions of what to do and in an hour I already had over 20 comments. There are lots of things we are going to try- hiding veggies in things, putting a variety in front of her and not pressuring her into eating it, making it more fun and having her help with the preparation, and trying our very best not to stress :). It's really hard dealing with it, but at least she is not on a feeding tube. I have to count my blessings. I have two friends who's toddlers are still needing feeding tubes or other assistance, so we are doing pretty good :). Little by little I'm sure she will become better.
Emma is a monkey and like to climb on EVERYTHING! She's even a monkey during reading time with Daddy:
Poor girl. She gets sick all the time. This was her longest streak in her entire life of not being sick though- a whole three months! But now the last 5 days she's had pink eye, a fever and a cough! Not fun!
The first time we discovered there was a train at the mall, I didn't bring money. So for the next couple months I got to hear about "mommy no money for train!". The next time we went the train was broken so again I got to hear about "train broken. Train broken." FINALLY we went and the train was working AND I had money with me...this is Emma being ecstatic about it...
Now on to Reesie-Roo.
Reese is almost 6 months old! She started getting up on her hands and knees and rocking before 5 months. Crazy! She wants to get around so bad and now she can get to almost anything she wants but inching her way there like an inch-worm. She goes into plank position, moves her back legs close to her arms (with her bum in the air) and plops down on the ground so she's inched a little forward. She'll continue doing that until she's reached her desired toy. It's fun to watch her and all the amazing yoga moves she can do! She gets up into crazy positions, rolls all over but can't quite figure out how to move her arms forward with her legs yet.
Reese is SUCH a happy baby and I love that about her! Yes, she still is waking up once or twice in the night.....boo! But I would rather take the happy, content baby that she is if it means she still wakes up at night. She is just very good for me during the day and it makes it much easier to give the attention to Emma that she needs. Now that she is growing and getting stronger we can try and let her cry it out a little more since I know she doesn't need to eat every 5 hours at night anymore.
She has also gotten her first tooth and it hasn't been too painful for me :). In other words I didn't see it coming cause she never got cranky. One down, 19 more to go!
One of my favorite things about Reese is how cuddly and cute she is when she is happy. I know she has gotten enough sleep when I hear her wake up from her nap talking and giggling. I LOVE going into her room and seeing the big grin on her face when she looks up at me. And she gets excited and squeals cause she knows I am going to pick her up.
Practicing her plank yoga pose:
Reese started getting mad when I put the head-band on her head :). It was really funny. Her pose..."Mom, why did you do that to me??"
I'm happy that she is starting to get some chub on her! No, she's no a huge baby, but she looks very healthy and that's all we care about!
"Part of your world" pose...
My girls are the joy of my life! Being a mother is hard work- very hard work, but the joy that I experience through being their mother, is greater than anything else I have accomplished in life so far. They are so fun and I wouldn't change the time, effort, sleepless nights, and poopy diapers for anything. The performing I have done in the past has been a lot of who I am and I gained a lot of joy through that. All the crazy, fun times I had throughout college with my roommates were definitely a lot of fun! Going on my performing mission, singing in firesides, going on amazing vacations to Hawaii and Disneyland and such have been great memories! But being a Mom is lasting joy. Being a mom brings greater rewards than anything else this world can offer. Now I do have to say that I am a much better mom when I am able to have some time to recouperate and exercise, read, sew, craft, garden, sing, or whatever talents I want to work on. I think we all are able to be at our best when we can balance our lives with good things. But I sure love being a mom and I love my girls!
