Snow Day

We finally got some snow here in Holly Springs! Ellie had already seen snow at Nana and Papa's house, and she did somewhat fine. Of course they had a sled to entertain her for the few minutes every lasted outside, no one had snow gear on so it only lasted about 10 minutes. We thought she would like the snow if we got all geared up and mommy and daddy were playing with her, well that wasn't the case. Here is how it went:

Geared up, without a fuss, somewhat excited to get out in the snow:
Went outside with daddy and Kayla, fell down as soon as she stepped foot on the snow, and hated it:
Came inside, I warmed up her hands, then back out to get a shot of Ainsley with the snow:
Ellie would not step off the porch, so we decided to go inside and eat lunch, watch a movie, then take a nap. After Ellie woke up from her nap, she kept asking to go outside in the snow. We decided to try it again. Geared everyone up (except Ainsley), then out we went. Once again, she refused to go off the porch, so we decided to carry her and get a few shots of her happy:

I forced her to walk in the snow, she would only holding on to both my hands. Then I forced her to do it walking holding on to only one hand, she did it with lots of fussing:
After this she had a melt down, we decided we were done for the day. Poor daddy, he loves the snow. However, the snow definitely wasn't very "playable". We couldn't make snowballs or build a snowman. It was good to sled on, just need a sled...

Hope you had fun in the snow :)

Working Out

Zach works out at home a lot, so Ellie is learning a few moves. Take a look:

Last week

So let me tell you why there was no new posts this past week. Last week Zach went out of town to Orlando (yea, he went to Disney World without us). I decided to go visit my parents to get some extra help. Thank goodness I did because I think that was the hardest week yet with the two girls! Zach left early Sunday morning, but I didn't go to Winston-Salem until Monday afternoon due to Ainsley's one month check up. Well on Tuesday Ellie was acting very fussy and tired, so I decided to take her temperature and found that it was 104.3! I started to freak out and called her doctor. They said not to worry since toddlers get high fevers all the time, but to watch her and the fever. I kept watch and put some motrin in her, which lowered the temperature, but every time the motrin started to wear off, she would spike a fever above 104. I called the doctor again, and they said as long as I could get it back down, to not worry if she was still acting ok. I tried to keep telling myself that I shouldn't worry, but on Wednesday when I checked her temp and it was 105.4, I had to call the doctor! Luckily we knew a doctor in Winston personally (Zach's high school best friend's dad), and we called him to ask what we should do. He told us to bring her in to make sure she's ok. We took her in and he checked her out. Everything looked ok, just a little fluid in her ear. He didn't think that was the cause of the temperature and that most likely she had some virus (maybe RSV). He put her on an antibiotic to make sure.

Let me tell you what my sleep looked like last week. On Monday night, I got my normal amount of sleep (about two 3 hours stretches= 6 hours). On Tuesday night Ainsley woke up and would not go back to sleep at 1am, so I slept a total of about 4 hours that night. I tried to take a nap on Tuesday, but as soon as I laid down, Ellie would wake up. On Wednesday, I put Ainsley down at 9:30p and went straight to bed. Ainsley lasted until 2am (so I would've had 4.5 hours straight sleep), but Ellie woke up screaming at 12am and wouldn't go back to sleep unless I laid with her. I ended up asking my mom to come sleep with her, which provided me a lot more rest! So Wednesday night I totaled about 5 hours broken up three times. Luckily (with my mom's help), I was able to nap on Wednesday. Thursday night Zach came home at midnight and both girls slept decently.

I just had to complain on here and give you a little bit of what life has been like... The adrenaline from welcoming a new baby has worn off and now Zach and I are just sleep deprived. We're hoping just a few more weeks or less before Ainsley sleeps through the night. Ellie slept through at 8 weeks, praying the same for Ainsley. She sure doesn't need to eat in the middle of the night, she's got enough fat on her to last her awhile :) She sure is a cute chubby cheeks baby though!

Here is a video of me trying to get her to smile:

1 month

Ainsley was a month old two Saturdays ago (yea, I've been a little slack on here... we'll get to that later). We went to the doctor last Monday for her check up. She weighed in at 11 lbs (90%), measured 21.75 inches tall (75%), and measured 37.8cm around the head (70%). She is definitely a healthy baby who is growing fast! Here's a new picture of our sweet girl. I absolutely adore her hair! I can't believe how big she is, those cheeks sure do show it though :)

Ainsley is still doing pretty well at night by going 4-5 hours between a feeding. We absolutely cannot wait until she decides to sleep through the night. It definitely is becoming harder and harder as our patience is very thin due to so many sleepless nights (well I guess not technically sleepless, but definitely sleep deprived). Ainsley has started smiling and cooing, which melts my heart. One characteristic Ainsley has is her grunting. She grunts when she's hungry, gassy, or pooping. She is one vocal girl, but not due to crying (which we do hear occasionally). She loves being on her belly, being held in your arms, and looking around (she seems to be very alert). She'll have days where she is awake almost the whole day, and others when we can't get her to do anything but sleep!

Ellie still loves her little sister a bunch. She gives her kisses, holds her hand, gets concerned when she's crying, always wants to know where she is (wakes up and asks for her everyday), prays for her, and tries to play with her. Ellie is actually doing great with Ainsley, just not great with her attitude with mommy and daddy (i.e. she's going through the "terrible two's"). Here's a shot I got of them this morning, Ellie wanted "Annie" to sit beside her:

(holding hands)

Zebra

If you never have heard of the "I Spy" books, they are great! Ellie loves 'spying' different objects on the page. One object that we 'spy' is a zebra. This is a new word for Ellie, and it sound nothing like how she is supposed to say it. There are quite a few words that Ellie says that sound nothing like it should. We took a video to show you:



A few more:
Memaw- sounds like elmo
Nemo- sounds like elmo
Milk- sounds like melp
Natalie- sounds like maci

Firsts

We've had a lot of firsts this past week!

Ainsley:
1/7- first real bath! No more screaming during the bath, now only if they ever stopped screaming when putting on the lotion. (You would think they would like that since it's almost like a massage, oh well...)
1/8- first bottle (I ended up giving it to her and she did excellent, she gulps it down.)
1/10- first time sleeping 6 hours (she went from 10p-4a), hasn't happened again but is doing 4-5 hours most nights!

First Bath:


Ellie:
1/7- first hair cut! Ellie's hair was just getting to nappy, so I knew I finally needed to give in and give her a hair cut. We sat her in her booster seat with a snack and a movie, and I attempted to cut her hair. She did great and although I wasn't sure how her hair turned out, I think it looks much better now that I'm used to it! I'm still not going to touch her bangs, I want those to grow out! (So Nana, don't say anything about them needing a cut too!)

Before:
After:
What do you think? Do I have a future in cutting hair? haha, only our daughters and Zach's :)

It's already started...

Ellie's favorite friend that is a boy is Carson, a friend from church. Ellie is a very particular person, and has her specific friends that she likes to play with. Well she never chooses boys to play with, but somehow she is very fond of this cute little boy, Carson. Zach and I were able to watch Carson in the church nursery when we served in the 1 year old class. He is very sweet and we adore his parents, whom we also have gotten to know a lot more over the past 6 months.

One story I love about Carson is from a few months ago, when he welcomed his new sister into this world. We brought them dinner one night, grilled chicken and some sides. Well, Carson doesn't like grilled chicken. So to try to get him to eat it, Catherine and Matt (his mom and dad) hyped up the chicken calling it Ellie's chicken. Surprisingly he ate it and loved it, and even asked for more! They continued to use this on other grilled chicken, and he would always eat 'Ellie's chicken'. (I'm not sure if he still falls for this now, he's probably figured it out).

Now here comes the cutest...

Carson is turning 2 on Saturday and we are invited over to celebrate! Here is an interview Catherine gave him that I just had to share with you on our blog. Just click on the link and watch the video: Interview with Carson

So it's already started, boys are in love with our sweet Ellie. We're gonna be in trouble... (although if all the boys that liked Ellie were like Carson and came from a family like the Allison's, it might make it a lot easier... well, probably not for Zach)

Fun in the Tent

Christmas present from Gigi and Memaw T, Kayla has fun with it too!

2 weeks

Ainsley is two weeks old! I can't believe she already is two weeks, but it's also hard to remember before she was here! We love her more and more each day and she continues to grow more and more beautiful as well. We went to the doctor Wednesday for her two week check up, which I was really anxious about. I have been praying since Ainsley was born that she would be back to her birth weight at 2 weeks (which is what the doctors want or they start pressuring you to start supplementing). Ellie was not back at her birth weight at her 2 week check up and this caused a lot of stress and anxiety. So the first thing we did at the doctor's visit is get her length, she was 20.75in long. Next we got her weight, Ainsley was 8lbs 10oz!! I jumped for joy, she not only was back at her birth weight, but weighed 5oz more! Ainsley is right above average (55%) for height, weight and head circumference. Ellie was right at average, so Ainsley is just a tad bit bigger.

Life has definitely been overwhelming learning how to handle two kids. Zach has been a huge help, mostly by just taking Ellie to play with and let me rest. Although this is needed, it has also left me with Ellie withdrawal. It's definitely a lot different with two, and one of the things I have been struggling with the most is 1) not being able to hold Ainsley as much as I want and 2) not being able to spend as much quality time with Ellie. These two things conflict with each other and I'm trying to get better/learn how to manage my time with both of them. I definitely will say having the second is harder than the first, just because of the mere fact you now have 2 kids! One of the ways it's a lot harder is that I can't sleep whenever I need/want to, Ellie is awake so I must also be awake. Another way it is harder is that I have to continue to have patience, understanding, yet also continue to be consistent in my discipline. This is extremely hard when you are tired, but extremely important for a toddler.

(Kisses for Ainsley)

We are definitely overwhelmed and worn out, but luckily we have friends and family to help out and support us. It's very exciting that our family is growing, we feel extremely blessed to have two healthy, beautiful daughters. We look forward to the many adventures and lessons that await us this next year. HAPPY NEW YEAR!