'Round Here Part 2

Maybe I will get around to posting more often soon.  As of right now, I'm still using my spare time to catch up on sleep (considering I have two kids that don't sleep through the night.  Laynie actually sleeps better than Marlee most nights!).  Here is a review of the last few weeks.

Thursdays at Jack & Jill

Marlee loves to sing and dance.  She is really into "Deep and Wide", doing the "Here is the Church, Here is the Steeple" saying with her hands, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", and "Ring Around the Rosie".

She is also still really into counting.  She still counts from 1 to 2 to 5 to 7, but she can recognize all ten numbers.

Marlee still likes to tell Laynie "Hi" all the time.  And likes to get right in her face.  Laynie just looks at me like she is saying, "Help me!"

Laynie has started smiling.  It will melt your heart.

She has also started "talking" quite a bit.

Marlee still isn't sleeping well.  We are coming up on a year since she slept through the night.  At this point, we have just realized that this is the way it is going to be.  Here we are at 5:30 am in the rocker.  Sleeping beauty. ;)

And here we all are in bed bright and early on another morning.  Laynie sleeps beside my bed, but she had really bad gas this particular morning.  So, I put her up in bed so I could cuddle Marlee (and keep her asleep) while still being able to reach and soothe Laynie.  This is what James saw when he got out of the shower.  Haha!

Marlee is quite the little stinker these days.  She talks non-stop and is constantly cracking me up.  One thing she says all the time is "No, don't want it".  Except she says it as if she is going up a musical scale on the "no" and then again on the "don't want it". She has also started to want us to rock her before bed (I think it has to do with some jealously for her baby sister).  She will say "rock you".  ;)  I can't get her to stay still long enough for pictures these days, but her she is after school and at lunch...looking ornery as can be.

I tried to get her reaction to the pumpkins and scarecrow I put out while she was at school, but planes are always a cause for distraction.

Laynie still does a lot of sleeping.  Here she is snoozing through two different Razorback games.  I don't know how she manages to sleep through her Dada's yelling.

She is also putting on some pounds!

And just because I love a baby in a swaddle

We managed to get out of the house for lunch last weekend with the girls.  We drove up to the marina where we store our boat to eat at the little restaurant there.  Some of the best home cookin' around!

These girls sure do love their Dada.  I was trying to get Marlee to sing songs for me and managed to catch the expression on her face when her Dada pulled in the garage from work.  She is stuck like glue to her Dada from the time he gets home to bedtime.

Here they are on the back deck with Dada.  Marlee loves to hide out under the grill cover.  I was on the phone with my boss one day and I looked over and saw her little feet sticking out under the grill cover.  When I lifted it up, she was drinking my Sonic drink as fast as she could.  Haha!

'Round Here

So, we've been a little busy.  I started working when Laynie was just two weeks old so if I have an extra hour in the day, I like to try to squeeze in a little nap instead of blogging.  However, I am making myself stay awake today so I can upload all of these pictures.  Beware of picture/video overload below.  This is everything we have been up to in the past few weeks.

Here we are Labor Day in Fort Smith.

  Who needs a swimsuit when you have bloomers?  This girl is fearless.

 Memaw Polly loved getting to meet Laynie.

 

 Laynie and Hayes.  These two are going to have so much fun together! 

Marlee has learned how to use the water dispenser on the fridge.  It is messy.

Here is Laynie building her neck muscles 

 while big sister catches up on Dora and Baby TV

 
Marlee breaks out into a little dance when she recognizes one of the songs

Marlee is finally sleeping better in her toddler bed (not sure if I have mentioned this, but she started crawling out of her crib right before Laynie was born).  She either sleeps through the night or only wakes up once, which is a massive improvement.  The poor girl has never been a good sleeper.  She requires a lot of things at bedtime now.  She even added a ball the other night.

Marlee loves her little sister and goes over to to say "Hi" throughout the day

  And sometimes she even tries to pick her up and she will say "Oooo, it's heavy."

 Marlee has been spending Thursdays with her Ma at Jack & Jill.  She is having a blast.

 While Marlee is at Jack & Jill, I usually give Laynie a bath

She hates it.

But she loves it when we are all finished and she is cozy and warm with her paci

Marlee is still counting and it usually goes like this: 1,2,5 (with the 5 said in a high pitch voice).  Sometimes she throws in 7,6,5,7 after 1,25.  She is also really starting to recognize her colors.  She can usually recognize yellow, orange, blue, and black...and sometimes green and white.  She has also started saying her A,B,C's.  She can get all the way to G.  Here she is upset about her hat falling off and then noticed that I wrote the A,B,C's in chalk on the sidewalk. ;)

While I'm working, Laynie likes to hangout in my carrier

Or on the bed

Sometimes she even has a question

Since the weather is starting to cool off, we are spending more time outdoors.  We love a good evening walk (that usually ends at the school playground).

We have also enjoyed spending afternoons on the deck.

Marlee likes to share her snacks with her little sister.

She also likes to share her toys.

And, with the cooler weather, comes Razorback football.

 Other than that, we have just been chillaxin,

relaxin,

 and loving on our sweet babies. 

Big Sis / Lil Sis

I bought these shirts with all intentions of taking pictures of them in the hospital.  Well, I forgot that big sis is only 1 and doesn't like to sit still, so that didn't happen.  Instead of letting them go to waste, I decided to have a little photo shoot at home.  Surprisingly, big sis was very cooperative.  But lil sis wasn't having it.

Notice super jealous big brother in the background

 
 We thought Laynie might calm down if we put her in Marlee's lap.  She didn't.

 But of course the paci worked.  And I'm pretty sure Marlee was over it at this point.

 
 Yeah, she was.  Because now she is exploring all of Laynie's facial features.

 And then Marlee started to push Laynie off of her so she could go play.  I have a feeling this is how our pictures are going to go for awhile.

Laynie is One Month Old

I cannot believe that my baby girl is already one month old!!  Here are some shots from her one month photo shoot.

 She wasn't a fan.  

 But this little girl loves her paci and it always makes everything better. ;) 

 At one month old, you are:

• Sleeping a 6 hour stretch at night (and have been for the most part since the day we brought you home).  Praise God!
• Starting to smile
• Happy when we sit and talk to you
• Enjoying small tummy time sessions
• Wearing a size one diaper (although it is pretty big on you) and wearing 0-3 month clothes
• Enjoying being held and Momma doesn't mind. ;)
• Mostly pleasant.  You don't cry much unless you are working some gas, you spit up, or you don't like the way we have positioned you.

Here are a couple of videos of you just hanging out:

We are so blessed to have two beautiful, healthy baby girls.  We love you to the moon and back and we are enjoying all of the snuggles because we are 99.9% sure you are the last baby of the family. :)