an eventful week!

In anticipation of a new arrival, we bought a fancy new camera and have been playing around with it a good bit lately. I thought I would post a few photos of me and the twins in our last few days of there being just three girls in the house. Here is Hannah being Hannah. She loves to be with me and do whatever I am doing so I am introducing her to the salad spinner. They became fast friends.

Again, playing with the camera ... but I figured Cooper has not had a day in the spotlight in a while ... so, here he is!
Here are the three of us gals the day before our family of 4 became a family of 5.
Here is Meredith being silly and wanting to play in the baby's chair. Silly girl.
So, onto our biggest news. As most know, I was scheduled for a repeat C-Section on Tuesday the 26th but didn't quite make it in time. I ended up going into labor on Friday night and went to the hospital Saturday the 23rd and had the baby by C-Section that night at 7:49 PM. Needless to say, it was a very long day!! The reason for the C-Section was only because I had one with the girls and was too chicken to try for a VBAC. However, she was lodged way down in my pelvis and sideways (at incision, the first thing they saw was her ear) so the OB said I would likely have had a really hard time pushing her out anyway. I am glad I went with the planned C-Section. The hours of labor pains I had were not fun and I have lots of respect for people who do natural childbirth! Since I did go through the contractions and she was way down in the pelvis, she came into the world quite bruised and swollen. In the past few days she has just looked better and better. She is jaundiced, however, so has not been able to stay in the room with us. She has been allowed out of her "tanning bed" only for breastfeeding then back to the lights! It is hard for me to give her back but I know that the longer she is under the lights, the sooner she can go home! We are both still in the hospital at this point, but anticipate discharge tomorrow (Tuesday the 26th.) We named her Caroline Avery. She will go by Caroline. She was 7 pounds and 5 ounces and 19 inches long. So basically she looks like the girls did when they were like 3 months old =) I am feeling pretty good as long as I take my meds on time. I'm sure in a few weeks, I will be as good as new! Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers I'm sure you have been sending my way and I can't wait to have more pictures and stories to share. Here is our first meeting ...
The girls came up to see us yesterday and did fairly well. Meredith was a little freaked out and didn't really know what to think of Mommy in the hospital bed and the new little being that I just happened to be nursing when they got there. Hannah was more interested in touching her and looking at her (as you can see here) but was still a bit jealous when Mommy's lap was not hers and hers alone. She had a tough time leaving but my Mom and Dad and Alan say she is doing pretty well at home and knows that Mommy will be home when her "big boo boo" is better.
Here is our first family photo! I think I will always have quite a full lap which is actually pretty great!
As you can see here, Caroline has very dark hair. The girls didn't have much hair when they were born and what they had was a light brown. You can see what happened with theirs and I wonder if Caroline will favor me a little more and have the dark hair. Time will tell!
Here is a close-up of her dark hair ... the photo may be a little PG-13 but at least no parts are showing! I felt it was pretty safe =) She is a good breastfeeder though a little sleepy. I'm sure she will get more efficient with time! Feeding her is night and day from what it was like to feed two preemies at the same time! Now I just have to figure out how to feed her and entertain two 2.5 year olds at the same time!
peek-a-boo ... she has had some wide-eyed moments of late but she is still usually newborn sleepy. Her eyes are the same murky blue that the girls had so I suspect hazel or brown eyes for her.
She still has some bruising and swelling between her eyes and her little nose is still a little puffy but everyday it diminishes a little ... this was yesterday. I love the squishy cheeks!
This is from this morning and she is making faces at her Dad ...
... and at her Granddadddy
My parents are here helping with the girls and they and Alan have been switching off so that I always have company and the girls are always taken care of.
Here is little Miss in her tanning bed. This is where she has spent all her time since birth minus her feedings. It is a little lonely in my room without her and I am hoping she is too little and unaware to feel the same way.

Christmas and such ...

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We had a great time with family. I'm sad to say that I am not, however, very good at taking photos when I have the opportunity. I think I get too caught up in taking care of the girls and making sure everything is just how I want it (can anyone say "control freak"??) and then the holiday is over and I have no photos to show from it. I did get a few of the girls and a few of some of the things we did around the holidays. The girls seemed to enjoy Christmas but maybe they are still a bit young to be able to handle all the excitement. They enjoyed opening a few gifts but then were "done" so the 3 day present opening extraveganza was a lot for them to handle. They are doing well now, though, and have really enjoyed all of the gifts. They went back to school today and yep, cried and cried. After I picked them up, they kept saying "we should cry at home, not at school" ... hmmm ... wonder who tells them to cry at home? Thanks a lot ;) ! I guess when you deal with kids like mine who have pretty tough separation issues you try anything. Hopefully in a few weeks they will get back into the swing of things and only cry when I drop them off. I have learned not to expect them not to cry at all. New kid is doing fine. I have an appointment tomorrow and hopefully all will be well and we will still be set for C-Section on 1/27. In preparation for her, we got a new car and we have unearthed the infant carseat. Her room is ready except for a few things that need to come in the mail. I will post pictures of it soon. My bag is half-packed ... and I'm sure there are a ton of other things that I need to do but I am feeling like we are getting there as far as being ready for the chaos that being post-op with a new baby and 2 two-year olds will bring. Well, I will get on with the pictures as I posted a bunch ...

This was before Christmas ... do you think we were in need of some new toys? They actually still love to play with the spices. They are absolutely OBSESSED with playing with a bunch of the same thing ... they love little balls of PlayDoh, to play with their snacks such as GoldFish or Cheerios, the letters off of their art easel they got from Grammy, their pretend food they got from Grandmama ... they will empty and fill all of the possible containers they can find or fashion from something with a different intended purpose ... what is with that? Here, they were putting all the spices in a line and telling them to stay there until they call their name ... something they got from school, no doubt ... oh, and they did have dresses over their little outfits here ... this was post-nap and the dresses never got put back on. They remind me of myself when I was little and doing ballet and always running around in tights and leotards.

Here, they were putting all the little "baby spices" (the little ones, you know what I mean?) behind the "safety bar" (ie rolling pin) so they would be safe. Then they were covering them with their blankies and telling them it was time to "go night, night." Where do they get this stuff from?
These are a little out of order but I tried to be domestic this year and made cookies for my neighbors and I let the girls each decorate one. Here, they are painting on the icing.

... do I see sprinkles?!?!?

... who needs the cookie? ... this is Meredith ... she literally ate the whole bowl of frosting with her spoon.

all done!

... you want me to wait so you can take a picture of my cookie? Are you kidding me, Mom?!

getting started ...

... half-way there ...

mine were a little less psychedelic that my two little sous chefs' cookies were ... hope they were good! The last thing I wanted to do after a 4 day cookie-making-spree (I made and frosted 80 of them) was eat one!

The girls got Alan a desk organizer for his office that has 3 little frames in it ... and I was trying to get some photos for it ... when I asked Hannah to look at the camera and smile this is what I got ...

... shortly after this one, she started crying! She has gotten pretty shy. She has always been clingy but once you get her to open up she is pretty social. When I got them up from a nap and they could hear a lot of people downstairs (we were having a little get-together with my Mom's extended family) she said to me "I hear people downstairs, I am going to be shy."

When I asked my generally more introverted child to smile for the camera ... this is what I got ...

... then this ... go figure?!

Here is Christmas morning ... what do you know ... Santa came!

a child after my own heart ... goes straight for the chocolate!

Meredith on her tricycle

Hannah on her tricycle

Santa also brought them these princess PJs which they HAD to put on RIGHT THEN ... after a few Santa gifts ... they needed a break and wanted to watch a show on Mommy's computer ... so we let them have a little break.

After a Clifford episode, we got back to gifts. Mommy and Daddy got them this dollhouse (it is a dollhouse that houses little critters instead of dolls ... bunnies, cats and the like ...) At this point, they mostly like to get all the little baby critters and put them in a cup, then move them into the baby pool, then put them on the window sill ... etc ... I'm telling you ... obsessed ... obsessed with the sorting and organizing!! Meredith, however, does enjoy playing with the house how it is intended sometimes. She will put all the beds in one room and put all the babies night, night ... Hannah mostly just likes to take all the little drawers of the dressers and kitchen furniture out then put them back in ... out, in, out, in ... As a side note ... their PJs were way too big (Santa really thought by 2.5 maybe they could actually wear a 2T ... not so much) and I had to roll up the pants because they kept getting super ticked and saying that their pants were "driving them crazy!!!" ... again, it is me ... my own words coming out of their mouths! Everything "drives them crazy" these days ... too funny! Even funnier is when (especially Hannah) will pretend that one of us (me or Alan) is upset and say "what is wrong? you have to use your words, tell me what is wrong? There is no reason to fuss ..." or when I really AM upset at them or the dog or something and Meredith will say that "Mommy needs to calm down, she is acting crazy!" ... love it, love it ... the things that come out of their mouths! At least it lets me know that they are, at least, listening to us!

thanksgiving & meet Santa

The girls and I have had a fairly calm few weeks. As for Alan, he seems to have a black cloud when it comes to being on-call because his past few weeks have been anything but calm. He has another run of call at Christmas (24th, 25th, 26th and 27th) so pray for us that he is not called in on Christmas morning therefore missing the first Christmas where the girls are "getting it" as far as presents and Santa are concerned. They are getting pretty excited about Christmas but still too young to understand the concept of time ... I think they are a little tired of waiting as we have all these decorations and presents and ... what?! ... we can't open them yet? The girls and Alan have been a little under the weather the past few days and I hope the bug continues to stay away from me! Alan is also trying to recover from running the Kiawah Island half-marathon this past weekend. We plan to stick around for Christmas due to Alan's call schedule as well as the fact that the new Finley family member should be here in a matter of weeks. It is a little exhausting to climb the stairs much less haul myself, a bunch of presents and two 2-year olds out of town on my own. It will be nice, though I will miss MY childhood Christmas routine, to begin to make Christmas traditions for my own kids. My family is coming here after Christmas for which I am so grateful! I can hardly wait to have everyone in the same room again! For Thanksgiving, Alan was off Thursday and Friday so we went to Sumter. We had a blast and the girls had so much fun playing with their cousins. I did not take nearly enough pictures!

Here are the girls on game day. I was nice to Alan and did not buy two Clemson shirts ... as he would say, at least one of our kids cheered on a winning team ... as I would say, there is always next year, right?

One of the few pictures I took at the Finley's ... the girls were happy to see their Dad and ran for hugs even though he was post-run sweaty ... they are braver than me!
The girls love to see and talk about their cousins Nick and Jackson. Both of the boys are so great with them! Nick was very patient and sat and read to Meredith for a long time ... it was too, too cute!

As the saying goes, most kids would rather play with the box the toys come in rather than the toys themselves ... just, in our case, the box REALLY needs to be big enough for two! This one worked just fine!

... as does our kitchen cabinet ... they love to play hide and seek and this is a favorite spot to hide ... I, of course, can NEVER find them though ;)

Another favorite new "game" is to bounce on Daddy's legs ... which I am sure is easier on Alan than the "jump on Daddy" which they used to love to do!

The past few weeks, the girls seem to have gotten closer and closer ... they often want "sissy" to kiss their "boo boos" as opposed to Mommy ... which is what is happening here ...

We decided the girls were old enough that we could chance putting up a Christmas Tree ... they have been told they can touch the ornaments but only with ONE finger ... and they are really very good about it!

I thought it had been a while since I posted a photo of myself ... so, here I am, in all my big belly glory ...

Anyone who knows about how this particular event went last year knows that a 50% improvement is not too bad ;) Meredith wasn't thrilled but she tolerated it ... Hannah was terrified. For fear of scarring her for life, I didn't even try to put her on Santa's lap but you can still see from the picture that she is about as close to me as she could get without morphing into my body ... which, most days, I think she would do if she could ...

haircuts and children's museum

We have had a good few weeks. Alan had a week off two weeks ago and other than a few administrative-type things he had to do, he spent most of his time with us girls. He "reconnected" with "his" baby (Meredith-she has always been the one who will give "love" freely to him whereas Hannah is a Mommy's girl and needs to be in the "Daddy mood" to pay attention to Alan) and now she cries when he leaves the room and they follow him in the bathroom and etc ... nice change of pace ;) The change in routine (perhaps) did throw a wrench in our MMO success and Hannah has taken to crying much of the day again. Geez ... just when you think it is getting a little easier! Thursday was a pretty good day, though, so maybe we will be back on track soon. We decided that it was time to even out their hair and took them to the salon for the first time. I was surprised at how much I worried that they would look different from each other ... as much as we feel it is important that they realize they are different people and how much we do want to foster their independance, I guess I will always hold on to the days where people had a hard time telling them apart. Even post-haircut, their teachers rely on my dressing them differently, so I guess I don't have to be sad yet!

this is Meredith, pre-haircut

Meredith, again. She was so well-behaved. I guessed that she would do better with being messed with than Hannah would but I was surprised at how well she did. She just sat there like she was told and looked to be enjoying the whole process.
still Meredith

Meredith, all done from the back ...

... and from the front!

Hannah, pre-haircut ...

Hannah really did OK. Which surprised me, as well! She whimpered a little and reached for me to get her almost the whole time ... and needed her "bee bee, bay" ... and was generally a little squirmy but she didn't cry or insist on getting down so I was super proud of them both.

When her hair person (didn't catch the name!) started to dry her hair she actually looked like she enjoyed it! Now, sometimes she wants me to dry her hair at night after her bath which is fun ... a fun part of having girls ... fixing their hair.

Hannah, all done from the back ...

... and the front!

We had a pretty bad day yesterday. Alan was post-call and the girls were restless and wanted to "go somewhere else to play" though we had plans to go look at a car. So, in order to try to compensate them for spending an hour + at the Toyota place yesterday (which, in turn, made them fall asleep in the car on the way home and therefore not take a nap once we got home therefore be REALLY grumpy the rest of the day) we decided to take them for a fun day this morning. We went to the children's museum then to get some Mexican food (one of their favs) at Taco Boy. They were so well-behaved the whole time (with the exception of when Meredith fell and twisted her ankle ... which she is still limping around from ... so, understandable fit.)

Here, they are playing in the water room ... if they were only about a foot taller, this room would be much better ... so we didn't stay long

Here, they are "driving" the shrimp boat ...

hmmm .... guess the shrimp boat has 2 steering wheels (or driving wheels as Hannah would say) ... speaking of, this is Hannah in the pink ... the girl always has to be wearing pink, have the pink bowl and the pink spoon ... girly girl, that one!

post-twisted ankle (the reason for M holding on to blankie) ... here, they are playing with blocks with Alan ...

The favorite activity of the day, by far, was hanging out in the crafts room. We made these lovely birds (the two funky purple ones with the crazy feathers and rhinestones) and sat them on the tree to help decorate the room ... I think they really enjoyed the fact that since there were two sets of adult hands, I was letting them play with markers and glue ... when it is just me, we stick to crayons and tape! Alan and Meredith's bird is on the left and mine and Hannah's is on the right.

This particular day, they were offering "painting in the garden" so we went out and let the girls mess around with the paints. They seemed to really enjoy it! Hannah, in particular, really enjoys being creative and coloring and crafts (from my observation and also per their teacher at MMO.) Meredith is my sorter ... she loves to sort and organize and to play with multiple of the same-type thing (blocks, plastic animal figurines, stuffed animals ...) They both love to play with Play-Doh and Meredith wants me to take one color and make all of it into little balls she can dump out and put back in, dump out and put somewhere else ... etc. Hannah likes to take all the little cookie cutters and make different shapes or make worms ... etc. It is interesting to watch them learn their preferences with play.