Hello Again

Well, I haven't been here in a while and so much has happened! First - Happy New Year! Crazy how fast 2011 went. Seems as though the years just keep getting faster and faster! (Does that statement officially make me old?!) Here are a few updates from the past couple months:

Isabelle: Has turned 3!!! And a big three she is! She was 40 lbs and 40 inches tall at her 3 year appointment. She has a super fun birthday party at the aquatic center near our house. Three of her friends (and their parents), Ben and Julia, and of course, Dana all came to celebrate! She is learning so much and now understands what numbers mean instead of just being able to count. She can point and count a number of items and *generally* comes up with the right number! She doesn't quite get her age yet... She'll usually say she is 4, when asked! She has mostly outgrown the terrible twos. We are into a new, energetic, loving, happy, usually obedient, phase. We love this little girl!

Birthday girl making a wish.

Friends "helping" to open presents!

In the pool.

George enjoying the party too.

Going down the slide with Nicholas.

George: Is now seven months old! At his 6-month well-visit, he weighed in at 22 lbs, 8 oz and was 28 inches long with a head circumference of 44 cm. This translates to: well above 95th percentile for weight and somewhere in between 90th and 95th for length. He was back to the doctor for a flu booster just after Christmas and was 24 lbs 4 oz. :) Happy, healthy baby boy! He is sitting like a champ, trying to crawl (having difficulties with our wooden and tiled floors - keeps slipping), has two teeth (and is working on several more). He is "talking" and the "words" we have recorded so far are: Dada, Belle, ba-ba, and - finally - Mama (as of Sunday).

Photo shoot in the leaves.

"What?!?!?!"

So happy!

6 months!

7 months!

Sneak Peak

We had Christmas photos taken last weekend... Here is a sneak peak! They turned out AWESOME!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween today! This year was the first time Belle really understood what was going on. She chose her costume (from her dress-up stuff) and was very excited to be Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz - or "Wizard of Ba" as she calls it... :) Her costume was even complete with Ruby Red slippers! We had to layer up because of the chilly temps the last few days. (We even had snow here - in Maryland - Saturday!)

 Here is Belle in her costume with her Toto.

 Little pumpkins!

George the blue-eyed monkey.

We had a great time trick-or-treating in our Ferry Landing Woods community! We went from house-to-house on the hay ride and ended at Hooker's Train Station. Grandma Gloria is down visiting for a few days and got to enjoy this Halloween with us!

 Hooker's Haunted Train - all three Dorthy's in one car!

Carving pumpkins with Grandma.

Another month

Today, George is five months old. He is 21 pounds, 7 ounces - a VERY big boy! Today he had two shots and didn't make a peep! He's tough like his sister! His first ear infection (discovered last week) is cleared up. He did great on the anti-biotics, even if I DID screw up and only give them to him once a day when he was supposed to get it twice... :)

 Today, Isabelle is 35 months old! She is 40.5 pounds - also a very big girl! Next month, she will be three years old... I am not sure how that happened. Note: To everyone who said "it will fly by," you were right! No need to rub it in... Belle got a flu shot today. She went first (because I didn't want her to get scared when George started crying after his shots) and she did awesome! She didn't make a peep either! However, she did hide her head in my chest and the nurse said, "I'm so sorry! Did I hurt your feelings?" and she nodded "yes". Since she was so brave and SUCH a big girl, she got a lollipop, a balloon, AND... wait for it... a BAND AID! That was the highlight of her trip... The band-aid. I love this girl!

34 and 4

Yesterday began months 34 and 4 for our little ones. The day came with a nasty cough and fever for Belle, but a pretty good day for George. We spend almost 3 hours at the doctor awaiting our sick and well visits. Belle's cough and fever are not strep, as we thought it might be since it is going around at daycare. Her left ear was "questionable" (as Dr. Sue put it) so she is on another round of antibiotics for that and her enormous tonsils. The girl has the largest tonsils I have ever seen (and every doctor comments on it and runs strep tests everytime we go in because they are so huge all the time) but no strep! However, Doc said there's a chance it could be tonsilitis - another reason for the antibiotics. Hopefully everything clears up soon. She is still 39 pounds! One pound from officially having to move to the new booster seat we picked up last weekend.

She did not want to let me take her picture here, so I just had to snap one quickly when I managed to get her to look up...

Georgie boy is doing great! Healthy as can be! He is growing like a weed (still) and will be starting solid foods in the next couple days (probably this weekend). At four months, our little man weighed in at 19 pounds even and measured 26 1/2 inches long, dwarfing big sister at this age (who was 16 lbs 15 oz and 25 inches long). :)

Happy boy, sitting very well with support!

Derby!

We ventured out Saturday for the kids' first demolition derby and what an exciting derby it was! Belle was thrilled to see all the cars smashing together and got to see the firemen at work several times. There were multiple car fires (the largest I have ever seen at a derby) with one car catching another on fire and in another heat, yet a third car catching on fire! There was a truck heat (which I have also never seen before) as well as a stock car heat. It was very exciting! Belle also got to see a helicopter pretty close up because a little boy fell off the grand stands and had to be air lifted out... I do not know what happened to him, but it really made me watch Belle's every move to make sure she wouldn't fall off the stands (even though we were only a couple rows up, it would still cause some damage to fall for a little one!) I hope that he is doing fine.
George was not such a fan at first... He was already sleepy and I changed him before the derby started and the bathroom stalls crashing shut sent him into meltdown mode, followed shortly after by the announcer coming over the speakers VERY loudly... Luckily, he calmed down enough to eat and then the noise of the cars racing put him right to sleep. He was a trooper! Especially for such a cold night!
I didn't think to bring the camera, so I, unfortunately, do not have any pictures of the kiddos watching their first demo derby... They were looking awefully cute in their winter hats though! :)

Two

Two.

Two kids.

Two times more laundry.

Two times more work.

Two times more mess to clean up.

Two times more stress.

Two times more exhaustion.

Two times more hugs.

Two times more snuggles.

Two times more giggles.

Two times more smiles.

Two times more love.

And I love these TWO!