Who is Who? Which is Which?

As I have said before, I try very hard not to compare the girls.  And trust me, they are nothing alike in personality, so far.  However, as you will see, they appear to look exactly alike.  I suppose Brian and I didn't give much time for the DNA to mix up since my pregnancy with Hailey was confirmed on July 29, 2009, Paige's 1st birthday.  They really do appear to be carbon copies of each other.  You decide: 

Paige

Hailey

 

Paige



Hailey

Paige

Hailey

Hailey

Paige

  

Paige

Hailey

29th

The 29th will always be a good day. Both girls were born on the 29th of the month. Paige is July 29 & Hailey is March 29. Because Paige was breach, a scheduled csection took place for her birth. So I knew with Hailey I would have one too (however, she was also breach). I was lucky enough to be able to pick the day and choose the 29th for her birth too. I don't have siblings and thought it would be fun for them to share something special. They also share similar spellings of their names with the "ai". I hope they like these similarities as well.

2 days After Christmas

I was grateful today for all the new toys the girls had to play with from Christmas. Paige assembled Mr. Potato Head, played with the new blocks and Disney characters and all the new Yo Gabba Gabba bath toys. It was really niec to have new things to focus her attention. She also practiced peddling her new tricycle in the house with success, but when we went outside with it, she wouldn't do it.  Hmmmm???


Interesting that she made it funny like this.  When coloring she knows exactly where the eyes, nose and ears should go to be anatomically correct. 



Building a fort for the Disney characters with her new blocks...while wearing her Dora helmet.  Must be heavy construction. 



The girls received Yo Gabba Gabba bath squirts and sticky foam for the tub.  Paige matched two different toys characters. 

Christmas Morning

The girls actually slept in a bit on Christmas morning...til about 8am.  I think becuase we went to a Chirstmas Eve party at our neighbor's house, so we were out a bit later than normal.  I called my mom's house when we heard them stirring on Christmas morning to have her, my aunt and uncle come over.  When we went to get the girls they were happy and Paige was READY to see what Santa had delivered.  We got their diapers changed and let Paige go downstairs.  Our house has a landing that overlooks the living room where the tree resided and she could see all the presents.  She went down and, of course, saw the pink Mustang first.  She was really excited about all the presents.  She would open one and want to play with it.  It took us about 4 hours to open gifts and still had some the next day that hadn't been opened.  I ended up opening them when I was cleaning up at nap time.  Hailey just went with the flow, but had to break at about 10am for a nap.  It was a great morning and I know they girls really like all thier toys.

Hailey in the passenger's seat.

Paige playing with the new ball that Santa left.

Family

My aunt & uncle drove over from the CA coast to visit for Christmas. Of course they came on a day when CA was getting a huge rain storm so it took them 11 hours instead of the normal 9. Yikes! On their way out I got my uncle to pose with Hailey.


He has always been called Uncle Mike by me. When Paige was born I thought it perfect to call him GUM, Great Uncle Mike. Paige was doing very well before he left in calling him GUM.


Auntie & GUM with Hailey (and Woolly too).

The Jolly Ole Elf

"Santa" wrapped gifts til 2am on Christmas Eve. Having two little ones & finishing up school work just made the task impossible to get done before the 24th. He delivered the pink Fisher Price Power Wheels Mustang, pink Radio Flyer Tricycle & the Step 2 double wagon. Here's the tree with all it's presents before I went to bed.  The only thing I forgot was to have the girls put out cookies and carrots for Santa and the Reindeer.  Next year! 

Dada the Santa Elf

Brian had begin his elf work tonight so that he has enough time to assemble all the toys. I on the other hand, still have not wrapped one gift yet. Here's Brian in Santa's Workshop (aka, our living room).

Antibiotics all around

The runny nose for Paige has turned into a cough, so I got her into the doctor this morning.  Just some sinusitits and a little fluid beind the right ear.  However, Dr. V did treat her with azithromycin.  It's Paige's first ever need for antibiotics.  I had it flavored with extra cherry and she did take it pretty well.  Dr. V advised that Brain and I go see our own PCP so we stop passing it all around.  I escaped the PCP with nothing because my symptoms are light and I'm nursing Hailey still, she didn't want to prescribe anything.  However, Brian had the yuck symptoms so he also got some azthromycin...just in a Dada Size dose.  I hope it works fast so they both can enjoy Christmas day without this yuck runny nose & cough.  Hailey thankfully has healed up.  Maybe becuase she's got her own immune system plus she still nurses so she's getting mine too?  She's double protected?  Anyway, here's to quick healing in the T household and a Merry Christmas! 

Chores for Mama

Today I had some chores to do around the house so I had to let the girls play by themselves. I was feeling a bit guilty that I wasn't interacting or "quizzing" Paige about what color something was, how many arms it has or singing the ABCs. But when I went to check on them, Paige had taken off all the sofa cushions & was building a fort and Hailey was watching. It made me happy that even though I wasn't interacting with them, they were having fun & were at home. So even though I live without a few things like getting my hair done or having the latest fashions, I'm so grateful to be home with them.

Splish, Splash

Well, with crawling also comes pulling up. Hailey was starting to pull up on the infant tub and hoist herself out. So...despite me wanting her stay a baby, into the real bath tub she went with Paige. We can't tell if it's easier or not. So far both of us have to be in the tub area to hold & supervise. But the girls do love being together. Here they are...Splish, Splash!

Egg Yolk

Hailey had her first taste of egg yolk this week. It's excellent cholesterol for her brain development & growth. She liked it & ate it right up. She didn't mind the texture at all. I mixed it in with her squash & also put it plain on her tray to pick up and eat. Here she is smiling!

Mellenium Babies

I find this amazing...Paige has been watching old Disney cartoons on the iPad or iPhone using YouTube.  She can navigate the iPad so well that she knows how to turn it on, unlock it, find the icon for YouTube and open a cartoon to watch.  I still love all the old cartoons from the 1930s, 40s and 50s.  In my opinion, the music is orginal and fun to sing along with or dance to, the animation amazing (even for today's standards) and the stories are cute (no real violence or inappropriate innuendos) and wholesome.  I'm excited that she is getting to know all the Disney characters to that when we take the girls to the land or world, they will be able to identify the rides and characters.  Fun times for sure despite using things from almost a century ago. 

Here's the lyrics to the opening of the Donald Duck cartoons:

Who’s got the sweetest disposition?
One guess, that’s who?
Who’d never, ever start an argument?
Who never shows a bit of temperament?
Who's never wrong but always right?
Who'd never dream of starting a fight?
Who gets stuck with all the bad luck?
No one but Donald Duck!

Just plain, fun stuff that I love to sing along with.  I hope the girls do too.  Thank you Mr. Disney!

Crawling

It's Official!  We now have a crawler in our house again.  Hailey has been doing the "army crawl" since she was about 5 1/2 months old, and has been rocking up on all fours for about 3 weeks now with just a few attempts at crawling.  But today was her BIG day, she officially crawled a long distance several times.  She goes to fetch toys of course.  So tonight, I made sure to sweep and mop extra well and may move more toys upstairs where there is carpet.  I don't think I would be comfortable always crawling on tile, which is throughout the bottom floor of our home, so why would I let my baby?  More time upstairs means a further distance from the kitchen...a very good thing for Mama at the holiday time when there are so many cookies!  I just love her smile and sweet disposition in this photo.  Yay Hailey! 
 

Hand-me-downs

Since I mentioned hand-me-downs in a post I thought I should talk about them a bit more.  In the words of DJ Lance, they are AWESOME!  There is a girl at work who gives them to me and recently I recieved another 2 huge bags full from another girl at work.  They are so helpful.  The girls go through atleast two outfits a day so I use them as the second outfit.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to buy baby clothes and shop for them (I tend to have about a $30 a week Gymboree addiction.)  But these extra clothes are just wonderful.  The bags or boxes I recieve usually include extra fun things too, like slippers, costumes (Paige really enjoys dress up), holiday wear, jammies (these are great!) and socks.  They also tend to be a size ahead of where Paige is, so I have several bins full of clothes ready to go.  Yes, we have LOTS of baby clothes in the house, because I also save all of Paige's stuff for Hailey.  (I should note, that I do buy Hailey new things too...she can't have all hand-me-downs, just becuase she's the little sister!) 

I did return the favor.  I have two sorority sisters who are having baby girls this month and I split them all up and sent the ones that Hailey has grown out of to them.  They were both so greatful.  The hand-me-downs I received from the girls at work were also passed on to another girl at work who had a new baby granddaughter.  I call those the 'GH Hand-me-downs."  Hopefully they just keep getting passed around.

Germs!

The girls have both had runny noses for the last week.  We've been turning on thier humidifiers in their rooms during naps and sleep time to help with the drying and congestion.  I've also been sterilizing the nipples, pacifers and sippie cups too.  They both get the aspirator also.  Hailey doesn't mind the apsirator while she is sitting up, but detests it while laying down.  It's a huge production to use for Paige because she is so aware.  I'm trying to teach her to "blow" her nose, she's done it a couple times, but just doesn't blow hard enough.  They have no other symptoms, just a runny nose.  I think it could be caused from the change in day and night temps.  It's been in the 80s durning the day and the 40s at night.  But I'm no metorologist or doctor, so who knows?!  Jackets and hats are a must when outside playing, which is no fun for a busy two year old.  I'm hoping they heal up before Christmas Eve!

Santa Baby

This little sleeper was a hand-me-down received from a girl I work with. (Hand-me-downs are awesome BTW!). Here are pics of both girls in it.



Hailey December 2010



Paige December 2008

Snuggles with Woolly

I caught both girls snuggling with Woolly tonight. Adorable in my opinion.

1st Christmas Ornaments

My aunt bought Paige her first Christmas ornament the year Paige was born. It has hung on the tree every year since. This is Paige's.



I had to make sure Hailey had the same tradition. This is Hailey's.



I hope to be able to give each girl their ornament when they have their own trees. Which I secretly hope is many, many years from now because I'll always want them home for Christmas.

Dinner at the T's

They were just so cute tonight I had to snap a picture.

Yo Squared

It was a day for "Yo"s today.  Hailey had her first taste of yogurt.  It was banana flavored and she ate almost all 4 oz of the YoBaby Yogurt.  She seemed to digest it well too.  No fussiness.  Yay Hailey!

Then...tonight was THE BIG night.  Yo Gabba Gabba Live!  It came to Phoenix and we made sure to have tickets.  Hailey stayed home with our neighbor Brennan, and we took Paige to the show at 5pm.  Paige had a great time!  I'm so glad we took her.  She either sat on Brian's lap or danced for the entire show.  The special guest band with Taubab Krewe and the speical guest was some local DJ (that was disappointing).  But Biz Marquee was awesome!  He invited kids to come up to sit on his lap and do sound effects with him and then he did a really great rap.  Very cool.     

Big smiles from Paige

Kia was the show sponsor and since it's Mama's car too, we posed for a pic. 

Paige and Dada with the cut out characters.

Paige and Me, again posing with the Kia and Muno! 

Right out of the Garden

Paige & I are growing a garden this winter. It has peas, radish, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes & peppers. It appears the radish are ready to harvest. Paige was able to taste one "right out of the garden."

Neighborhood Kids

We are so fortunate to live on a cul de sac where there are 5 stay at home parents. I like to get Paige outside when Hailey goes down for her morning nap. I needed to trim the bushes in the front yard so we could hang Christmas lights on them. Two of the neighbors came out & they all played for about 2 hours while the parents trimmed, talked & hung lights. One neighbor was so nice to snap some pics & send them to me.





They are playing dinosaur in this one. Paige must be a dino that chases balls.

It was a great morning that ended in Paige eating an awesome lunch and having a good nap.

The neighbor brought over cupcakes in the afternoon. This is Paige having one. She really liked them!


As a result of playing outside most of the day, I forgot to take something out for dinner. So I ordered some Chinese take out. Here is Paige slurping up her first lo mien noodle. Delicious!


A very good day indeed.

Sorting

Hailey is starting to sort. I saw her taking the blocks one at a time out of this toy train today.


She also played so well outside on the blanket while I finished trimming the bushes so we could put Christmas lights on them.


Then she sat quietly and played by the tree tonight.


And giggled a whole bunch at sister.


She's my special baby!

Peas and Carrots

Being a mom of two, I try really hard not to compare the girls and just let them be individals.  But with eating there is a clear difference.  Paige never latched to breastfeed and Hailey did on her first try out at birth.  Hailey still nurses today and instead I had to pump for 6 months with Paige.  As for solids, Paige loved the baby oatmeal.  However, Hailey prefers the rice cereal.  Paige would eat her cereal with the fruit or vegetable mixed in it.  Hailey screams with distaste if her food is combined with her cereal.  Paige loved the green vegetables, especially green beans and peas.  I would always leave green beans if Brian needed to feed her because I knew she would eat them.  Paige really did not care for the orange vegetables, especially sweet potatoes.  Hailey on the other hand loves the orange vegetables and cannot get enough of the squash or carrots, and she dislikes very much green ones, most specifically peas.  It just proves that each person is thier own indiviual.  However, I think it's a very good thing that peas and carrots go so well together.  Yum!

Teething...again

Hailey is teething again today. She has her two bottom & two top teeth. Today one tooth on each side of the top are coming down. The frozen wash cloth helps. I also gave her some ibuprofen. But she is fussy & just snacks at the breast. I was able to get about 4 tablespoons of rice cereal in her this morning, which may help with the fussiness. I feel so bad for her. Mama just wants to make it better. These are days I'm so thankful to be a SAHM.

Sleep

Hailey is almost 8 mos old. She goes to bed between 7-8pm every night. The routine is the same every night. She is waking up between 9:30-11:30pm, 3-5am & then 7:30am every night/day. Paige didn't sleep thru the night until 10 mos old. Mama is tired!

Woolly Bugger

Our special boy and baby Hailey.  He is such a snuggler and Hailey loved it. 

Boxes

Yesterday was the every 6 weeks Costco trip, which always ends in empty boxes around the house.  Hailey was having fun playing in on of them (I think babies like closed in spaces to make them feel secure) and of course Paige had to get in with her.  They play together so well.