Crocodile Blues

Check it out, I am FINALLY putting up some video.  My sister and sisters-in-law are all good at putting up videos and I always really enjoy them.  I feel like I get a better feel of how the kids are growing up with a video than just pictures.  I obviously error more on the picture side of things but am trying to take more videos.  I take many more than I post, in my defense as a mother responsible for documentation of my children's lives.  ANYWAY, here’s a video I took today of the girls reading me their new favorite book.  It’s a book without words called The Crocodile Blues  By Coleman Polhemus.  I picked up for $2 at the grocery store the other day.  (Which is pretty good I guess because when I got this picture of the cover from Amazon I noticed it’s listed for $12 there.)  They ask to read it everyday by name.  I love how they have it all memorized how their Dad reads it with sound effects and everything.

Please don’t mind the location this video was taken (in the bathroom with Tessa on the potty) hope that doesn’t gross you out, but I’ve just got to record video when I remember to, you know?

 

BIG news!

Check out what Tessa decided to start doing tonight…

Sorry for the terrible video, there’s no light in my living room after the sun goes down.  Plus, I obviously did that on my own. :)  Anyway, we’ve been encouraging Tessa to walk to us for awhile but she couldn’t be tricked.  Then all the sudden tonight she started wanting to walk short distances on her own, she made it across the room a couple of times.  Also today, I was lying her down to get her dressed this morning she was crying, then she stopped and started to sign eat!  I asked her if she wanted some food and she just grinned!  That was a first for her to sign without prompting.  She also knows how to sign milk, and more.  I need to get that on video next.  We’re proud of you Tessa Messa!

Yep, she started crawling a bit last week and is really motoring around now, she figured it out at 7 1/2 months.

Anytime I pull out my camera with Tessa around I get tons of this:

She's such a joy!  I love you Tessa baby.

Tessa belly flops

My dad took this video of Tessa while we were in Utah... she needs to work on those arms!  It's funny.

home movies

It's been awhile since I posted any movies and I think you can get a lot out of movie you can't from a picture.  So grab some popcorn and enjoy these movies of my kiddos from the last little while.  Sorry they are unedited... it just takes too long.

Sophie makes Tessa laugh

Notice that Tess is sporting her 1st pig tail in the following movie, it's small but existent!

Also, Tess went in for her check-up today and is doing awesome, just a healthy girl!  Here are her 6 month stats (although she'll be 7 months old in 9 days):  weight 16lbs 12.7 oz (53%), height 26 3/4 inches (71%), head 17 inches (62%).

Here's my personal favorite; Sophie singing Sleeping Beauty.

Sophie singing and dancing

That's all the movies I have time for today, hope you like them!

what I did to get 1 night at girls’ camp…

Mindy, Stephanie and myself on the archery range, we’re in the YW presidency together. 

I have been in Young Womens for almost 2 years now and really wanted to go to camp this year. It took a couple months of pumping extra breast milk, and a plane ticket for my mother (she came to watch my girls) to get me up for one day... but I am glad I went. I love my girls, they are so great! It is refreshing to see youth who are trying to do what's right and who care for each other. They go out of their way to make everyone feel included in a way I don't think I ever did. It's inspirational. Watching them gives me so much confidence in the future.

Here are the 1st years we were incharge of.

Ironically the 1 night I was there was the night it rained... and hailed. Our tent held up and none of my stuff got wet, more than I can say for some of the girls :(! I was disappointed that we couldn't have our testimony meeting (my personal favorite of camp) due to the storm. The poor stake president was trying to speak to us in a pavilion during the storm, it was a disaster. The tarps put up as walls around us provided us protection from the storm but made a lot of NOISE.

These are “my” girls from our ward during the storm.

I got home Friday at noon and we packed in as much fun with Grandma as humanly possible! After a quick shower we were off to the zoo. Grandma took Sophie on her first carousel ride, she was in heaven! While waiting for her turn to ride, Soph danced in line, the operator liked her so much she let Tessa and I join her for a free ride.  Sophie also thought the penguins were being very silly swimming and scratching their tummies.

 

 
We drove straight from the zoo to pick up Dan from work to catch a movie. We saw, UP!. Great movie. We told Sophie we were going to see a movie on a BIG TV. She thought that sounded pretty cool. She was ok during the movie.  Just a little restless towards the end and wandered around the almost empty theatre.  The best part was when she saw old man Carl she kept saying, "Big nose, WOW! Look at that, big nose!" I laughed my head off, what a funny girl. Tessa was mesmerized the screen for awhile and then just played with toys.

 

After the movie we went to Chili’s where my mom treated us to dinner, she said it was for Dan’s birthday… a bit of a stretch since his bday isn’t for another month.  But we really appreciate it!!  It was really yummy.  I think mom had a good time, even though she’s not smiling in the picture.  By the way, I think waitresses should have to take a photo class, since they take so many pictures.

The next morning we went to Paul’s birthday party and then took Grandma to the airport.  The party was a lot of fun, Sophie enjoyed playing on the playground, blowing bubbles, making a balloon monster, blowing the party favor, eating cake, punching the punch balloon, AND hitting the pinata!  Phew, Susan you out did yourself!  The pinata was funny, Soph watched a few kids hit it and when the stick was offered to her she ran away crying.  She was saying, “no thank you, hit fish.” and asking to swing.  I pushed her for a minute and then told her about the candy inside the fish, convicing her to go back.  She did eventually hit it.  I think it’s that she’s just been hyper sensitive to people being hurt lately, and seeing Nemo get whacked was too much!  But she liked it when he was pulled up and down and definitely enjoyed the candy afterwards.

Thanks again mom  for coming out to Denver, it was a pure delight to have you around. Thank you so much for letting me borrow your camera, it has been so nice.  Sophie and Tessa really love their Grandma and miss you too!

spring snow and Tessa giggles

Dan helped me take the girls out in the snow Friday morning.  Poor Sophie had a hard time getting around because the snow was so deep, she spent a lot of time on her hands and knees.  That may be partially due to the fact she was wearing a coat purchased for her to use next year (too big) and snow pants for Tessa to use next year (too small) and rain boots; but we just work with what we have here! Notice their cute matching hats complements of Great Grandma Chapman, THANKS!!  Neither of the girls were in the mood for a photo shot, but I took pictures anyway. :)

FOR THE RECORD:  Tessa rolled over from her stomach to her back last night for the first time, and she kept doing it over and over until I just left her on her back.  Guess she likes it better there.  And here's a video for all those doting Grandparents, aunts and uncles out there of Tessa chuckling a bit.  She likes weird things (like sneezes and coughs) so I made quite the fool of myself, anything for a laugh!!

a week of 2's

This post may be inspired by watching too much Sesame Street where they have a "number of the day!"  But we had a number of the week and it was 2.

2 months of Tessa's life. Here's her traditional "month-day" picture with the bear.  She is such a chubby chunk, and we love it!  What a mellow baby, Tessa loves to smile and talk to anyone who will listen, otherwise she'll just go to sleep. I also wanted to mention for my own journaling purposes (because let's be honest I'm not going to document this otherwise) that I've still got another 10 pounds to lose before I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight this time.  I gained 30 pounds during this pregnancy, lost 10 in the hospital, 10 more in the first week home and NOTHING since then. :)  Hopefully over the next 2 months I'll be more successful.

2 years for Sophie (see more pictures and commentary below)

2 bears go to bed with Sophie every night ("twos bears, mommy please! brown and purple ones.") She's doing great sleeping in her big girl bed although she doesn't wait for help out of bed anymore.  She also learned how to open doors this week so we've been locking her in. :) Don't judge me, sleep is important.

2 loads of laundry daily.  She may be small but Tessa makes a difference!  Especially with her going through 2 or 3 outfits a day... every time I'm changing her from a blow out I ask myself, "are the cheaper diapers really worth it?"  (I discovered that the Wal-Mart diapers cost HALF the Huggies.)

2 home-made dinners Sorry Dan, I'll do better.  It's hard to find time to go to the grocery store, plan and prepare the meals these days.  But I know I'll figure out how to do it eventually.

2 miles ran 2 times, I'm trying to get in shape to do a 10k on Memorial day, wish me luck!  It feels wonderful to be running again.

2 temple sessions (Technically, we are doing this tomorrow... but it's still a "2" from this week.)  Dan and I plan to take turns watching the girls so we both can go.  I love the temple.

2 basketball sessions with the Elder's Quorum, and no new injuries! Yeah!

2 sick parents and 2 sick kids.  We're all better now except Dan... ironically he's the only one who isn't home right now.

2 girls to the doctor on the same morning (not related to the sickness, just regular check-ups)

Here are their stats from the doctor's office:

Tessa

Weight - 11 lbs 8.4 oz (66%)

Height - 22 1/4 inches (42%)

Head - 15 1/4 inches (47%)

Sophie

Weight - 27 lbs 6.9 oz (61%)

Height - 34 3/4 inches (76%)

Head - 19 1/2 inches (93%)

BMI 37

2 poops on the potty We got Sophie her own princess potty that she used twice this week.  She probably sat on it 12 times with those 2 successes, but we'll take it!  The potty has a sensor in the bowl that will play a "royal reward" song when wet.  She's yet to make her potty sing, but we have high hopes she'll  do it someday soon!

2 sisters Here are a couple pictures of Sophie and Tess taken on Valentines day, and yes, Sophie's shirt is wet from trying to drink from a glass.  Such cute sisters, but they hardly look like sisters in these pictures do they?

Sophie's birthday continued... here's some play by play:

Dan set up Sophie's table and chairs after she was in bed the night before (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Chapman for those!) and I wrapped her presents and set them out.  When she woke up on her birthday I sang her "Happy Birthday," she surprised me with her birthday knowledge by saying, "Yeah, happy birthday cake, party hats..."  She was very excited about all of her presents and played with them all morning.  Her favorites are her new hat and princess shoes.  She has been scuffing around the house in those heels ever since.  Before Sophie's nap I pampered her by painting her finger nails for the first time, she thought it was pretty special.

Dan came home from work while Sophie was napping and so we went to the park in the afternoon.  It was FREEZING!  Sophie was the only one who didn't seem to mind the cold wind.  This first picture of her in the swing reminded me of her "pirate" picture from when she was a year old and I had to put them side by side for comparison... she hasn't changed much has she?  Just more hair.

For dinner we had Sophie's favorite: peas, chicken nuggets and fries.  While the food was baking the cake I had baked hours earlier was sitting on the stove.  It was the first time I used my new Pyrex glass pan and, can you believe it cracked in half!?!?!!  It was a loud noise and it took us awhile to figure out what had made it.  So I transferred the cake to our biggest platter... which wasn't big enough but I trimmed the cake to fit.  Sophie was mesmerized by the fire of the candle, she looks like she's in a trance.  She scarfed it down (especially the ice cream), yum yum!

Sophie was blessed with many phone calls and emails from family members, thanks guys!!  We love you so much Sophie and are so glad you are part of our family! You make us so proud and bring us lots of joy.  Hope you had a fun day on your birthday.

And last, but not least, here's video of me talking to Tessa... unfortunately I am much louder than she is since I am holding the camera but I have to talk to her or she won't talk back!  Anyway, I think she is pretty darn sweet.

So as you can see this week was 2 much fun! Oh dear, I kill myself with the corny pun... I can't help it, it's who I am.  Sorry.

Tessa’s 1st week

Today marks Tessa’s 7th day as part of our family.  Since coming home from the hospital we’ve been doing a lot of this:

Lying around and snuggling with a cute girls.  I took some pictures of Tessa as we did of Sophie at 1 week old with a teddy bear.

Sophie got jealous and wanted to hold the bear.  She seems like a giant next to Tessa.

   

Sophie is doing well with Tessa, she mostly just ignores her which is fine with me!  She does get jealous and want me to hold her if I have been holding Tessa for too long but she just asks for me she isn’t hostile towards Tessa or anything.  She does notice Tessa every once in awhile and has asked to hold her several times today.  She will give her kisses and say “hi” waving her hand in Tessa’s face and then push her away when she’s done.  It will be fun when Tessa is old enough for them to play together. I love both of my girls so much!

Tessa is doing great and is such a joy to have around!  She is a great eater and sleeps well as long as we hold her. :)  I love having Dan around to help out, he has been great.  He and Sophie have done a lot of bonding which is WONDERFUL.  I am spoiled in that I get him all the way until January 12th when he goes back to school!

Here’s a video we took of when Sophie met Tessa for the first time, it’s pretty sweet.