Friends

Whenever I put Ellie in her playgym she always fixates on this little creature.  I'm pretty sure Emmie never even noticed he was there when she was a baby...she always liked the hanging animals better.

What do YOU think?


People ask me all the time if Emmie and Ellie look alike.  When Ellie was first born my answer was no but as she's filled out I think they look more and more alike.  They definitely each have their own unique features.  For instance, they definitely have different noses.  Emmie's nose is from someone on Paul's side and I think Ellie is going to have my nose.  I thought they had the same face shape but now I'm not so sure...there's definitely something different about their faces.
So here are some pictures for you to compare.  The first set is of my babies within the first week of birth (except for Franklin...he was 6 weeks old in his picture but was only 1lb 6oz so he was still smaller than the girls!)
The second set of pictures is Emmie at 3 weeks and Ellie at 2.5 weeks.
Another thing to note is that Emmie ALWAYS has her mouth open and Ellie's is closed.  We always laugh because Emmie's tongue is always hanging out of her mouth.

Ellie







Emmie





Franklin



Emmie

Ellie

1 month old and Sunday Style Section



1 month old!





at birth



 I am 1 month old today!

• I'm getting bigger every day!  At 2 weeks old I was 8lb 13oz and 20.5in.
• I can still wear some newborn clothes and I wear some 0-3mo clothes.
• I sleep anywhere from 4-7 hrs at night and during the day I go 2-3 hrs between feeds.  I still sleep a lot during the day but I usually take 2 longer naps during the day and then at some point after each feed.
• I sleep in my crib at night (and have since I was born) and I sleep either in the crib or the bouncer during the day.

• I'm a little more content to sit in the swing than Emmie was.  I like the swing to go fast though...I like when Emmie pushes me...it's a wild ride!
• I love to watch Franklin and I really love to watch and listen to Emmie.  I have the best older siblings!


• I've already been on my first trip out of town.  I went to Greenville for a week and had a great time.

• I'm pretty content to be dragged around the house during the day helping Mama.
• I've been practicing sitting in my bumbo chair.  I don't like to sit in it very long but I do a really good job holding my head up.

• I've already been to My Gym 3 times and the library once.
• I LOVE my bath.  I get one every night now and I have such a good time in the bathtub.
• I like to go on walks.

• I'm very much a Mama's girl...much more than my sister was at this age.

Sunday Style Section

I didn't get too many pictures this week...I'm generally doing good to get everyone dressed and out the door, let alone get a picture taken!

I actually got both girls dressed with bows in their hair AND got a picture taken!

I wish Ellie had been happy but beggers can't be choosers!  I ADORE this onesie that Christa made for Ellie.  Isn't it adorable?!  She also monogrammed an adorable dress for Emmie, which Emmie insisted on wearing right away.  Sadly, I was not able to get her to hold still long enough to get a picture.

The great thing about smocked dresses is that kids can wear them for so long!  This is the watermelon dress that my mom made for Emmie last summer.  Next summer she can take the hem back up and Ellie can wear it!

Franklin was feeling all clean and handsome after his bath and so he stopped and posed for a picture.  I love this little puppy!  I do think he's feeling more stress over having a new sibling than he's letting on...lately, every time I turn around, he's managed to find socks and is dragging them around.  I'm pretty sure he's learned how to open our sock drawer because I can't figure out where he's finding these socks!

How could anyone resist a baby with a big bow?

Greenville Week

We spent last week in Greenville with my parents and I have bunches of pictures to share!
Paul took Emmie and Franklin to Greenville on Sunday and Ellie and I came on Monday after Ellie's 2 week appointment.  I think Emmie really enjoyed getting to be an only child again for 24 hours.  She really needed some time to feel like she was once again the center of the world! On Monday morning my mom took Emmie to Riverfalls Park in downtown Greenville and they had a BLAST!

Before getting in the water:

 After the water:

Emmie found a friend!

Ellie and I got to Greenville Monday afternoon and we all stayed pretty busy the whole week.  We had lots of fun things to do!

My Grandmother (Ellie and Emmie's GREAT Grandmother) came over to visit with the girls.

On Thursday we took Emmie (and Ellie - but she slept through the whole thing) to the Greenville Zoo.  It was SOOO HOT!  Emmie didn't seem to fazed by the heat but the rest of us, including Ellie, were quite toasty.

The orangatan was right up at the window.  It was pretty awesome!

Emmie made some new friends while at the zoo.  Notice how she just planted herself in between these two little girls.  She likes to be in the center of everything!

Feeding the goats.  She had a great time and the goats thought it was pretty great too!

Emmie and the pig oinked at each other for a few minutes.  She's such a little ham (Emmie that is, although I guess the pig is too...haha!).

Mrs. Wagoner came over to visit and brought Emmie this fabulous butterfly towel.  Emmie had a great time wearing it around the house!

Mrs. Prymak came to visit and brought Emmie a "Monstor Bowling" game.  Being the sweet girl she is, Emmie shared her new toys with her sister!

Gran with her grandbabies (minus Franklin...he was probably sleeping somewhere...or out chasing squirrels in the yard).

On Tuesday we took Emmie to the park near my parent's house and she had lots of fun.  There were these fabulous misters which kept us all cool!

After the park we went and got some peaches at Fisher's.  Emmie apparently thought she needed a peach right then, she sat right down at the picnic tables!

My brother was in his last wek of his internship and so he got to leave work early most of the week which meant Emmie got to hang out with The Giant.  She thinks everything he does is great!  One day he took her outside and blew bubbles with her...she had a great time.

Ellie stretching...she was trying to show The Giant how giant she is!

On Wednesday I went to Beth's house to get my haircut and Emmi ehad a great time playing with Carrington and William, Beth's kids.  Carrington decided to play dress up with Emmie and Emmie had a blast!



Settling In

After 2 weeks of having grandmothers at our house and then last week when we were in Greenville, it's finally me and the girls at our house...alone...scary! I was really nervous about how this week would go and if I would be absolutely exhausted and especially how Emmie would do...this whole new sister thing has been quite an adjustment for her. I'm pleased to report that we've made it half way through the week with flying colors! It's been so nice to be able to establish a routine based around our normal activities and the girls have both thrived with the return of a predictable routine. Sure, we still have our rough moments but they seem to be few and far between. So far this week we've managed to go for our walks (that's the easy part of our day!), go to My Gym and go to Publix and Bilo.
This week I've also been reminded what a sweet girl Emmie is...some days/weeks it's easier to remember! I felt like I spent the first 3 weeks of Ellie's life telling Emmie "no". No you can't sit in the bouncer or the swing, no you can't pick up the baby, no you can't kick, step on, pinch, sit on, etc the baby, no you can't wave the baby's hand every time you tell her hi (which is often...Emmie likes to tell Ellie hi and then wants to help Ellie wave hi...it would be really cute if it didn't involve her pinching Ellie's arm in the process). Anyway, while I spent 3 weeks telling Emmie no, she spent 3 weeks telling me no. No to EVERYTHING! Needless to say it was pretty rough but around the 3 week mark things really started to click and my sweet Emmie emerged once again (and it helped the whole situation that the meaning of the word gentle seems to have somewhat sunk in!). This week Emmie and I have had such a good week. She's been very obedient (obey is one of our new words, as is cooperate) and very helpful and has loved helping me take care of Ellie...she loves her sister so much and loves to hug and kiss her. Ellie absolutely adores Emmie. If Emmie is around Ellie watches everything she does...it's super cute. I was so excited when I found out Ellie was a girl because I wanted to watch them develop the sister relationship and develop a strong love for each other...I knew Emmie would probably be madly in love with her sister from day 1 but I had no idea that Ellie would be so responsive to Emmie...it makes this mama's heart so happy and I hope that they always love each other this much!

Now that you've read all my ramblings here are some adorable pictures of my girls together!

Emmie loves to share her toys with Ellie!

Emmie is telling Ellie how yummy broccoli is!  Emmie and Ellie spend a fair amount of time each day hanging out on the playmat together.

On a side note, today I learned something quite distressing while reading Anne's blog. Did you know that there's only supposed to be one space after a period? NOT two spaces. Do you know how hard it is to attempt to break this habit? Check out her blog post (click on the link above) where she has a link to an article that explains this earth shattering (or at least earth shattering to me) news!