At the Mall

While I'm not insane enough to hit up a mall on Black Friday, we were crazy enough to take the girls out to the mall one weekend recently. I haven't been to a mall in who knows how long, and as soon as we got close, I remembered why. The traffic! The crowds! Violet kept wanting to wander off, stressing me out! But it was a way to kill a cold evening when we'd been cooped up in the house all day. The highlights of our visit for Violet were as follows: riding the carousel, drinking Sprite, and riding the elevator. And then we went home. Literally those were the only things we did during our mall visit. And let me tell you, that was about enough for me!

Sweet sisters.

Serenaded by Daddy.

All Night Long

I don't want to jinx anything, so knock on wood, but this little lady has slept through the night the last three nights! She squirms around at about 5 a.m. or so, grunts a bit and usually lets out a big toot, but never opens her eyes. If I leave her alone, she will stay asleep until six or seven in the morning!

Now if only I could stay asleep as well!

Sister Sister

Annie, 2 months.

Violet, 2 months.

Making Friends

Tatum and Lukas, sitting in a swing.

On Sunday I arrived home from church with the girls to discover the above hanging out on my back porch. But there was no need to be alarmed. These distinguished gentlemen, entertaining themselves with the Sunday New York Times and a cold beverage, were in our neck of the woods to celebrate my brother's birthday. We had fun celebrating with the whole family, chili and pumpkin pie. Happy 31 years, Lukas!

Gus and Annie, best of friends?

You can tell the weather is getting cold when the cat is willing to snuggle up with whatever warm body he can find. Truth be told, they both looked pretty comfy.

Yesterday the ridiculously cold weather couldn't stop book club from getting together. Although at this point, it's more like a baby club! We did manage to discuss our book, in between feeding and playing with the newest members of the club. Four out of five of these babies were born just days apart in September! There is only one little man in the bunch, so he'll have his pick of the ladies. It was so fun to see them altogether and also see so many of my friends from the school. It's nice when your co-workers are also your friends.

Book club babies!

When we got home, another sweet friend of mine came for a visit. Jody was one of the first people to hold Violet when she was born, and I was so excited to introduce her to Annie. I love this girl. We spent countless hours together commuting to Athens for our masters degrees, and even though we hadn't seen each other in far too many months, we picked right up where we left off like no time at all had passed. How lovely to have so many good friends in our life!

Hello Jody!

Two Months

Pain in the Neck

Annie started physical therapy with Marla yesterday. Love that Marla. She is so good at what she does. I wasn't sure what to expect, but for her first session, I think Annie did really well. As in, she wasn't crying the whole time, which was my fear. Of course, she certainly expressed her discomfort at times, but Marla was so sweet and gentle with her.

Matt and I learned some different stretching exercises we can do as "homework" until our next session. I made Marla rate Annie's case on a scale of 1 to 10, ten being "the worst I've ever seen" and one being "there's nothing wrong with your child, you're just paranoid!" Annie came in at a four. I'll definitely take it.

Riding in the carseat is one of the times Annie slumps the most, so we experimented with various propping techniques to keep her in the right position. I don't think she was so thrilled. But therapy wore her out so much, sweet girl took the longest power nap afterwards. Marla called it a side benefit of the session. So there you have it. We are on our way to getting all the kinks worked out of this neck.

Have a Seat

It's nice to see everyone can get use out of our baby gear... I imagine the cat will be hopping in one of these days.

8 Weeks

8 weeks!

We are busy around here. I'm loving the fact that I have some extra time on my hands to knock out my to-do list. This week alone, I turned in the paperwork to get my teaching certificate renewed, Violet has her speech evaluation tomorrow, and Annie starts physical therapy for her torticollis on Thursday. Next week is my brother's birthday (I'm hosting a chili lunch for the family), book club, Annie's 2-month well-check, Violet's Thanksgiving feast at school, not to mention the actual Thanksgiving holiday!

Loving on her paci.

So my girl is eight weeks. It's so hard to believe. She's still just waking up once at night, somewhere between 3 and 4 a.m. She still not 100 percent sure of her paci. We spend a lot of time on the playmat and she already loves watching tv, football in particular (not that this season has been much worth watching). I'll be changing her on the bed and catch her glued to the screen - she could happily stay there for 20 minutes. She's doing pretty good with her head control, even with the torticollis, although I think it makes tummy time a particular trial. But I get plenty of big smiles every day, which makes it all worth it. Some of my favorite times are when it's just the two of us girls, hanging out together in the living room during the quiet day when everyone else is away. We talk and laugh and just enjoy each other's company.

And just for fun, let's compare Violet and Annie at the same age. Do you think they look alike? Annie definitely has more hair, and it's already lighter!

Annie 8 weeks

Violet 8 weeks.

For those of you who might be new around here, did you know that I took a picture every week for Violet's entire first year? I know, I am an insane person. But it's awesome to have a record here in this space to go back and refer to. For example, here is what I had to say about Violet's eighth week on earth. If you're interested in reliving history, check out the "Monday's Child" link to the right.

Violet was born on Monday the 22nd (of February) and Annie was born on Monday the 23rd (of September). According to the traditional poem, I think I'm pretty lucky...

Monday's child is fair of face

And We're Out!

Matt and I headed out on our first date night this weekend! It took us three months to first leave Violet while we went to a friend's wedding. It took us less than eight weeks to leave little Annie for the first time. Both grandmas came up to help out (one for each of my girls - we play man-on-man defense around here) so that Matt and I could attend a dinner and dancing event held in honor of my school's recent National Blue Ribbon award.

Can I just say how much I love where I work. Our admins are wonderful, the teachers are stellar, my team in particular makes me a better teacher each day. Teaching is a stressful, non-stop, emotionally taxing job, but working where I do makes it worth it.

My handsome date.

My first grade heroes.

It was so fun to see my team and all the rest of the teachers from the school. And it was even better to see them in such a festive atmosphere. We all dressed up, had a lovely dinner and danced the night away. Let me tell you, some of us can get down! And of course, it was good to have an evening away from the girls.

The grandmas did great. Somehow they managed to keep Annie awake almost the entire time we were gone (probably overstimulation due to both of them never wanting to leave her alone!) and once I nursed her when we returned, she slept all night long for the first time! I couldn't believe it!

(We tried to repeat the feat the next night, but alas, Matt and I are simply not interesting enough. She was asleep by eight! Oops.)

But it's nice to have gotten out for the first time and proved to ourselves that we can do it and live to tell the tale. Now, anyone want to babysit so we can plan our next date night?!

In a Slump

Lean to the left.

You may not have noticed it, but Annelise is a little slumpy. As in, she prefers to tilt her head towards her left shoulder. All. The. Time. My theory is that she spent quite a bit of time jammed into this position before she was born.

The official diagnosis (thanks wikipedia, my trusted medical diagnostic source, ha!): Congenital muscular torticollis. Torticollis basically means twisted neck, and it happens when the muscles on one side are weaker and not as stretched out as the other side, causing the slump.

Poor girl. Yeah, she seems real broken up about it.

My favorite neck position.

But it is a legitimate problem that needs help. Fortunately, we go to church with a fabulous pediatric physical therapist. The other day before the service started, she spent some time holding Annie, diagnosing the issue, and showing me some stretching exercises to do. So now, multiple times a day, I'm supposed to stretch Annie's neck and massage those stubborn, tight muscles. Some days she complains and does everything she can to pull her shoulder up towards her ear and get back into her favorite position. Other times she doesn't seem to mind so much. I have the most luck right after she eats and is all blissed out. The worst times are in the car seat or when she's sleeping - her head just naturally slumps to the left. Even when I change her position, she's right back at it within 30 seconds. Stubborn girl!

Fighting my hand to try and lean left again.

So it's going to be a work in progress. Fortunately, her prognosis is good. We've caught it early, she's still so pliable and bendy. As long as we stick with it (so hard when she complains!) we'll have the kinks worked out in no time.

Streeeeeetch!

Six Weeks

I can't believe it's been six weeks already! I don't have a newborn anymore, I have a full-fledged baby. And my maternity leave is half over. The time has just flown by and I am drinking in these days.

We had a busy day yesterday. Once I dropped Violet off at school, it was time for Annie to eat, so we plopped ourselves down in the infant room. It was great getting to see the place where Annie will be headed come January. I got to meet the teachers and see how things are done. Annie loved it! She was so alert, looking around the room at all the bright colors. And it was fun to see the other babies and look forward to everything Annelise will be doing soon.

After an hour in the infant room, we packed up and headed over to my school. It was picture make-up day, and since I missed the initial yearbook picture day, I figured I'd pop in and get it done. Then I headed down the hall to surprise my class. They were so excited to see us! They loved the baby, of course. I was showered with hugs and smiles and I was surprised to find myself actually excited to see them too. Already the boys and girls look so much more grown up than when I left them six weeks ago.

From there we headed over to the educational center to get Violet registered with the county so she can be evaluated for speech. She definitely needs it and I'm hoping to get her in now, as opposed to waiting until kindergarten. It's one of those things that was on my must-do-during-maternity-leave list, so I'm glad I finally got it crossed off. We have to wait for our evaluation appointment now.

That afternoon, my brother came up to hang out. Matt was out of town, and I always feel more comfortable when someone else is in the house with me. (Don't even get me started on the zombie nightmare I had the night before!) So he agreed to crash on the couch. It is so fun to see the relationship between Violet and Lukas blossoming. She used to be fairly shy around him, but now she can't wait to play and roughhouse with him.

So as you can tell, we keep busy around here!

Our Halloween

A spooky snack.

Our Halloween was awesome. I've said before that Halloween isn't really my holiday. I wasn't raised with a lot of Halloween hoopla - for a long time as a child, we kept the lights off on trick-or-treat night and didn't celebrate. But now that I have kids, especially a little girl who is so excited about the prospect of dressing up and getting free candy, I've gotten into it a bit. We still don't deck out the house like our neighbors do, but I'm learning. (See spooky snack above!)

I absolutely loved being able to go to Violet's school party and trunk-or-treat event. I was just like all the other moms! It's one of the aspects of this maternity leave that I'm enjoying - not just time to stay home and get to know my new little girl, but time to spend with my big girl. If I was working, there would have been no way I'd have been able to leave, and now that Violet is older she really wants me there like all the other kids. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go!

Favorite pals.

The class!

My Pretty Purple Princess

Showing off her growing stash!

Comparing the loot.

You can barely see it, but that purple hairpiece lights up - excellent for keeping track of her in the dark.

The princess and the ladybug.

Happy Halloween from the Loughman Family