Do you see the resemblence?

Ana sings her ABC's

Taylor takes her 1st "crawl"

It was only a foot, but it's her 1st, independently coordinated forward motion. AHHHH

And here is where she ends up!

We're still a little more porficient at going backwards.

I DID IT!!

Made the long avoided car seat switch. Taylor now has Ana's comfy womfy Britax and Ana has the fully loaded, but beastly, Eddie Bauer one (complete with cup holder and arm rests!).

This day was coming soon, and would have months ago if not for Graco's newest oversized line that we joked about upon buying ("who ON EARTH would have an infant THAT big in a bucket seat"....WE DO!!!).

But for months now I haven't even been taking Taylor out. I mean come on now, the girl hit 20 pounds 2 months ago (who KNOWS what she weighs now).... as you may recall she is the size of an 18-24 mo old! WAY TO HEAVY to lug around. Plus, she will only sleep in HER CRIB (such a particular little thing she is) so it's not like I need the convenience of taking it in & out for sleeping purposes. Therefore, during afternoon naps today, I said, "what the heck" and away I went to make the 'ol switch. Personally I think Ana will be alot more comfortable. This thing even has pillows.

This time around I decided to try out that handy dandy LATCH system that all cars and seats are equipped with. Truly I never bothered b.c it's so easy w.o it. HOWEVER, let me tell you- that's a breeze and gets the car seat snug as a bug. LOVE IT! (my paronoid self also used the "old" seatbelt method, so now they're double safe...lovely.)

Secrets of the South

Is what Savannah GA is known for uncovering after the beloved movie, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". And we have our own little Savannah secret to unfold..... YES, that's right.

Now, before you judge, know this was a QUICK excursion and NO ONE was harmed.
Remember the ending of the past "3 strikes your out" story? Well, the ending wasn't quite as I wrote....

the REAL ending is that we did drive to Savannah (we were almost there, it was nice out, and the girls were sleeping in the car any way) and take a quick stroll around... You know, just to see if it was worth it to make the trip back. And, YES it is! Great city. Can't wait to see more.

"OOO. Daddy, Mommy. Look at my cute pig tails",

says ana, running around the house. She loves these things! Thank goodness. I finally found a way to keep those bangs out of her eyes.

Alexander "Alex" John

WELCOME TO THE WORLD!!!

Today is a very exciting day. Today is the day Alexander John has joined our family. Ana & Taylor now have, not 1, but 2 cousins!! This really makes living away difficult. I can't WAIT to hold him. OOOO isn't he so SCRUPTIOUS and CUTE!!!! I just have to get there :) :)

STATS: 7 lbs. 2 oz. 19.5 inches 2.18.2007 4:12 PM

3 Strikes and Your Out!

Strike 1: Croup
Strike 2: RSV
Strike 3: Strep Throat

And out the window went our weekend trip to Historic Savannah, GA. (Daddy's perfect 30th b-day present to mommy, staying in an apartment/suite the heart of it all).




Here's the details:
Friday night was a tough one in this house, with Taylor coughing so violently she would scream and lose her breath all night. This had been building for a week, but given Ana had a similar cough for 2 weeks, we thought, "it's just the sisters sharing the crud" and did nothing about it, carrying on our way Sat. AM to Savannah (which any of you with 2 babies know this IS NOT as easy as hopping in the car). That was until, 2 hours into the drive, we got a call back from the nurse hotline stating they both needed to be seen ASAP (talk about scaring a mom). So off we pulled into the nearest Children's Hospital ER in hopes that we would be labled over paranoid parents and sent on our way, making the ER easy weekend $$, continuing on our weekend Savannah plans. YEAH RIGHT!

This particular ER was in Macon, GA (driving to Atlanta was too far) and we got to experience being a lay person in an ER (we typically are quite spoiled in ER's with our family connections). So 2 hours later; prescriptions for steriods and amoxicyllin in hand, with no invasive test, we were told BOTH girls had each and every classic sympotom of croup (they labled this walking through the door hearing both coughs- I now know exactly what the barking seal cough sounds like), RSV AND strep throat; we headed on our way BACK HOME (bye, bye Savannah).

Since the signs were obvious, it was past nap time and we had already been couped up in an room in the middle GA for too long, we opted out of the lab tests and treated based on symptoms.

Given the circumstances the girls DID GREAT! Really no melt downs or tantrums... AMAZING!

So home we stay until these coughs subside. I guess RSV can get pretty serious and is nothing to mess around about. Besides, it's EXTREMELY contagious! So stay away everyone. We'll call you when we can enter the world again. Until then, MOVIES, MOVIES, MOVIES. (bad timing with daddy leavnig for the entire week, UGH!)

Creativity Search: CALLING ALL MOMS

Mother of 2 seeks new HEALTHY baby finger foods for 8 month old whom demands self feeding (will strave self if "forced" to be be fed via bottle or spoon)

Ok all of you moms, dads and baby/toddler feeders out there. 2 of us moms of 2nd babies are stumped. We NEED baby finger food suggestions. Already tried and true: broccoli florets, frozen peas, pastina noodles, toast, puffs, cheerios (and the like), potatoes, carrots. NEED NEW SUGGESTIONS, and not snacks. We're talking the real deal here.

Moon Sand

The greatest indoor snadbox for Toddlers. Ana loves this and it's not even all that messy!!!!

Southern Girls Enjoying their Grits

Happy Valentine's Day

Ana's first school party- Valentine's Day- she was surprised by a visit from her family. How exciting!!!

I will call this entry, "HUGE"

That is because Taylor is HUGE!!! Some of you will recall my latest mom dilemna of what size summer clothes to buy dear Taylor now that the weather is warming up a bit. Currently her wardrobe consists of 18 mo winter outfits, but I wasn't sure how long that would last and I couldn't IMAGINE her and Ana both being in 2T/24 mo (which is what Ana's current wadrobe, of all seasons, is). So in hopes of her slowing down in growth (mind you she is only 8 mo. old to the DAY) I thought to myself (and to some of you poor souls), "I better buy some 18 mo summer clothes".

WELLLL I was very very very wrong. For some time now I've only been dressing her in stretchy cotton pants b.c they looked the most comfy (this should have been my first clue), but NEVER thinking that 18 mo were too small. I just thought "comfy". This has been annoying Justin b.c he thinks babies are cute in jeans and what not and I've been avoiding them. So, today I went into Ana's closest and grabbed a pair of jeans that she's almost too big for, but we make work (gotta love the flexible waist bands), and tried them on Taylor. Low and behold they fit PERFECTLY- even in the length- YIKES!!!

So yet again, Ana gets the new wadrobe (3T- just in time for her b-day. handy!)) and Taylor gets all her big sisters sloppy seconds. Such is life for the 2nd child, right??? Don't worry Taylor. Mommy will get you some cute outfits of your own.
(how can it be that our 8 mo old and 2 year old wear the same clothes and diapers- Ana is still wearting them to bed?)

The lesson of the day is this:
No need for stretchy only wadrobes when you have clothes that fit!

HELLO!!

Video Trial- Ana playing Ring Around the Rosie Take 1

PLEASE comment on if you can view this, and how the quality is. THANKS!

Taylor: 8 months

As I've been saying so frequently lately...Taylor really is finding her groove in life. She is so interactive and LOVES LOVES LOVES to play, especially with any toy her big sister has. Some of her favorite games are "splash, splash" in the bath tub (we yell, "splash, splash" and she throws her hands in the tub over and over again), "weeee" (jumping up and down in her Johnny Jump up when we yell, "taylor weeeee") and "peek a boo" (we cover ourselves and she pulls our hands or blanket off our face laughing out loud). i even think she's starting to make some purposeful word approximations (if not, they're great ones to shape- that's how it all starts, right??). DA- dad, BABA- bottle, DAH- doggie, AHDAH- all done, M-more & mom, IE- high. I think there's a few more I'm hearing, but these are the ones I'm sure I hear consistantly in the same situation with the same sounds coming out!

She also has gotten into a great shedule, which is working oh so well with the two of them. 6:30 PM to bed, bottle at 10:30 PM and 3:00 Am, up at 7:30 AM. Down again for a nap at 9:15 - 11:15 and then again at 1:30 - 3:30 (at which time Ana goes down too).

She's inhaling solids and LOVES to feed herself. A favorite lately is the florets of broccoli, shredded cheese, and hamburger (out goes the rule book of what to feed when, we just want this girl to eat)! Puffs, of course, are the all time hit of the house! I think you should all buy stock!

As far as her moves go, she is having a grand 'ol time throwing that body of hers around. She sure can twist and bend to get an object of desire. While she hasn't yet figured out the coordinated motion movement of creeping or crawling, the day is in our near future. For now I'm enjoying a safe home environment and the ability to leave Taylor to play happily by herself (of which she LOVES to do, for long looong stretches of time) with no real danger looming around the corner.

LIFE IS GOOD!

Taylor takes the plung

It's hard to believe that Taylor is coming up on 8 months old and has just been swimming for the first time. Oh how different things are for the 2nd one around. Never the less, we joined our local Y and took teh girls swimming.

Ana of course loved it, but Taylor was fear stricken. I'm not sure if it was that magnitude of size, sound or both, but she clung to me and screamed for dear life. We took it slow, sang songs, bounced around and of course watched our big sister and in time, (as you can see) grew to love the water.

It's a good thing we can do this more often now. This is a water baby family :)

CHANGE YOUR BOOKMARK

Sorry everyone, but after talking with the masses I realize that many of you can't view &/or comment on teh .mac blog. So, I've made an executive decision to come back to blogger.

It's been a rough break up (nothing that a little communication can't fix), but we've mended our differences. And, what blogger lacks from my oh so loved mac world, it's promised to make up for in viewing friendliness for all of you!!!!


Therefore...change your bookmarks yet again and stat viewing and commenting!

WE LOVE YOUR THOUGHTS!

We REALLY are back!

After a few months of trying out a new blog, I've come to the conclusion that blogger is still the most user friendly for "y'all"

THEREFORE...bare with us and change your bookmarks once again...WE"RE BACK!