Night One

Tonight the girls have gone to bed with no bottle. Are my babies gone? Have we officially moved away from the bottle? We were down to just the night time bottle but knew it would have to go soon. Tonight the girls each had 2 sippy cups of milk between dinner and bedtime so I thought it would be the perfect time to try bed with no bottle. They've been down for 45 minutes now and we haven't heard a noise. It will be interesting to see if we can do it again tomorrow. I'm excited to see them grow up and be able to do so much more but I miss that baby stage already. Wow, does time fly.

Happy Birthday!

Another Year
I’m wishing you another year

Of laughter, joy and fun,

Surprises, love and happiness,

And when your birthday’s done,

I hope you feel deep in your heart,

As your birthdays come and go,

How very much you mean to me,

More than you can know.

Snow Day

I know it's not the first snow day that I've been home from school this year, but it's the first snow day that the girls have been out in it. Aunt Tracey who lives next door came over after lunch today and said to bundle the girls up they were going outside to see/play in their first snow day. So that's what we did. We went out and watched all the big kids on the street play. Ali is walking so she walked around on the street a little bit and was fascinated by the snow. She wanted to hold a snowball forever. Emma didn't want much to do with the snow, but she enjoyed checking everything out. To warm up we went to Tracey's house. The girls had Cheerios and we had warm brownies with ice cream and chocolate syrup. Yum! Thanks Aunt Tracey for making us come outside for a bit.

Ali

Well I got this crazy idea last night as I got the girls out of the bath and was combing their hair. I decided that I was sick of Ali's hair always being in her eyes and looking so straggly. I gave her a first hair cut. Billy now says she looks like a boy. At least she can see when she walks now. I saved the hair that I cut and it's in a bag on top of her scrapbook. As fast as I've been working on them it will probably still be there in that same spot in 6 months.

Sleep Over

Tonight the girls are back home with us sleeping away in their cribs. The past two nights they have stayed with grandma. That was their first sleep over without mommy and daddy there with them. My mom had taken Friday off to watch the girls because Ms. Tina had to be off for a funeral. I had to be at school Thursday evening for a PTA event and mom was going to watch them anyway Friday night while we went to see Larry the Cable Guy. So it just made the most sense for them to stay Thursday night through Saturday morning. I was there Thursday evening until I had to return to school, I came back by for a few moments after the PTA event, Friday morning before school and Friday afternoon before we came home to get ready for our big night out. So it's not like I dropped them off and didn't return for 2 days. Even with seeing them each day I still missed them and was glad to have them home this afternoon and evening. I'm sure I missed them more than they missed me.

On to other crazy news. Billy has had some trouble with his vision this week and I made him go see a doctor. The family doctor found nothing wrong with him and sent him to an eye doctor. Nothing like an eye doctor basically telling you he has no idea what's wrong with you. Billy has to go for a MRI Wednesday to rule out anything crazy going on and then if that comes back ok it sounds like we will be going to see an eye doctor at UVA. Why does something always have to happen to us? Money is tight as it is, and now here come more medical bills. I'm sure there is a lesson that we are supposed to be learning through this trying time, but it hasn't come to me yet.

On to a better note, I'm going to attempt to start the transition to milk this week with the girls. I'm ready to stop buying formula. Any suggestions out there on what to do since we still do a night time bottle? I don't know how I am going to get that away from the girls. Do I just give them a sippy cup of milk? They will drink juice and water from the sippy cup but the few times I've put their formula in it they won't drink from it.

I'm not working very fast

Sometime before the girls turn 20, I will get these scrapbooks done. It is so hard to find the time to work on them. And let me say what little I have done is nothing that I would want someone who does this on a regular basis to see. I have so much to learn. I figure getting something done and recorded for them is better than nothing. I finally got everything off the kitchen table and up to a card table in our office, but as you can see from the photo there is no room on the table to work once I sat out all my stuff. I will continue to plug away and maybe one day I will have something to show for it. I tell you one thing I never expected is the money that can get wrapped up in this. I've done good and not gone crazy, but I was at my neighbor's house the other night showing her what little I had done. She wheels out this huge suitcase that contains all her supplies. WOW! I have so little compared to what she has. But she was wonderful and sent a few things home with them. Now I just need to use them.

Dinner

I have worked really hard this past week to give the girls real food at dinner. Tonight I gave them all real food and not one single bite of baby food. They had some applesauce, peas, mandarin oranges, banana, hamburger helper stroganoff, and bagel. We always top off dinner with a yummy desert of animal crackers and graham crackers in their bubmo seat on the floor. That way they can eat and play. What a night! As you can tell from the picture of the two together, no dinner is complete for Ali unless she can watch a little TV. Sometimes I think it would be easier to sit her in front of the TV and feed her.