Update

So.... I'm a little late on a 3-month and 21-month update for the girls. Here's a quickie one for the books.

Julia

Likes:

• talking, talking, talking nonstop (as of now we're getting 3-4 word sentences and short conversations)
• going under things
• ice cream
• the pool
• bathtime
• outside
• playing pretend
• Curious George
• wearing the exact same thing as people around her
• imitating everything
• Scrappy
• all things trucks, trains, motorcycles, cars, and construction machinery
• soda (vitamin water)
• identifying ownership of all things 
• her family

Dislikes:

• reason
• bugs
• dirty hands
• being told "no"

Lana

Likes:

• Mom and Dad
• batting at toys
• nursing
• the first 15 seconds of tummy time
• kicking in the bathtub
• ceiling fans
• drooling
• chewing on fists
• talking to Mom
• being very serious
• sleepsacks and pacifiers

Dislikes:

• having her nose cleaned out
• people sneezing
• being overtired
• getting out of the bathtub
• swaddles

Photo dump

We are rounding out 21 months and 3 months! Time is flying (yet also sometimes it goes so so slowwww...). Julia is diving headlong into the terrible twos, and Lana is starting to really get interested in the world around her. Never a dull day around here.

Just photo dumping today, so here it is:

Goofy in the tub

Laughing

Sweet girl when she wants to be.

I love something about the smooshy droopy baby-on-her-side face.

She's getting so active now.

Discovering the lower half of her body...

Trying oh so hard to roll over...

And then getting stuck when she does.

And this is usually how tummy time goes...

Fortunately Mom is there to flip her back in exchange for a half smile.
(Isn't she starting to look like Robert here?)

Bath time for Julia

Ever since Robert took Julia for a six-week session of swimming lessons, she's been LOVING bathtime. She splashes, blows bubbles, and generally makes a big wet mess of the bathroom. I can't wait for Lana to get a bit bigger so we can bathe the girls together!

(and can you tell I was playing with my white balance?)

"If you're happy and you know it then your FACE will surely show it..."

Our current method of rinsing her hair. She totally doesn't get the concept of "look up!" so we bought this contraption instead. It's mildly successful.

Sleep is magical

Lana is rocking the sleep lately (is she just easier than Julia or do I have a much better idea of what's normal and how to handle infant sleep?). So, despite the fact that I know it has almost nothing to do with me, it still makes me feel like an awesome mom. Now we're just in a holding pattern until she can go a little bit longer between naps and we can set up a daily routine.

Also, I'm working on justifying a nice, new expensive camera as an upcoming gift, so I'm trying to get better with the one I have now.

So, those two things combined equal:

  

It's not a photo update without a fingers and toes shot...

So here they are in all their itty glory. :)

Two under two, two months in

Tomorrow is Lana's two-month birthday, and so I'm going to go ahead and declare myself through the worst of the "two under two" storm. Someone else with two children fairly close together told me that, for her, the worst part was being nine months pregnant with a young toddler, and I have to agree. Even on the days when I feel like I'm at the end of my rope, at least I have the energy and ability to run around the house keeping everyone alive. Sometimes the level of neediness is way too high, but it's nothing I can't handle. It's hard in the way a tough class is hard, or a big project at work - you bust your butt for awhile, and it sucks for awhile, but you know the end result is really going to be something you're proud of.

I'm not trying to be all, "Look at me be a super mom!" nor am I saying it's a walk in the park - no way. But it's going better than I expected, and I'm just trying to share the "Wow... So I actually CAN do this!" realization that I've been having. Maybe I'm just awesome (perhaps), or maybe I just get way too anxious about things ahead of time so I'm pleasantly surprised when they turn out to be okay (likely). 

It helps immensely that I have two chill, responsive, independent and inquisitive little girls, who both happen to be decent sleepers (well, night sleepers... Lana is taking after her sister (and me) by turning into a terrible napper, but I'd rather have the night sleep so I can't complain). And, with the exception of a bout of mastitis early on, we've been pretty issue-free. Lana doesn't even spit up. (I didn't even realize there were babies out there that don't spit up!) Really, it's my girls that are making me look good. 

Also, I've had a lot of help. I've swallowed what's left of my pride and accepted any and all help that's been offered. My mom got us through the first three weeks. R's mom takes Julia and/or Lana for almost the entire day one day a week (and watches the girls so R and I can squeeze in a date night here and there). And I hired a nanny to watch Julia twice a week for two hours, so I can spend some one-on-one time with Lana and get a break from Julia's toddler tornado. R has managed to be home almost every night at a reasonable hour, and he's been so helpful with everything (yes, they're his kids too but I know so many women whose husbands either aren't willing or able to help out as much as he does). And I have a small handful of incredibly awesome friends who have brought us lunch, helped out with rough bedtimes, met me for playdates, met me for coffee, and just all around been an awesome support (that's mostly you, A!). And you know what? I don't feel any less proud of what I'm doing just because I've accepted all this help. It'll taper off as time goes on, but Lana will mature, Julia and I will get in a rhythm, and the three of us will have things running smoothly all by ourselves soon. 

Lana's not really clear on who people are right now. I think she knows R and me, but Julia doesn't stay still long enough for her to really get to know her. Julia generally likes Lana but she's spinning in her own orbit right now. Sometimes she is desperate to hold the baby RIGHT NOW, and other times she gets really upset if I'm interacting with Lana at all, even just holding her. But most of the time she ignores her. Or steals her pacifier.

Tandem nursing is going alright. I hung in there with Julia through the pregnancy, with the assumption that it'd get better and be worth it once Lana got here. There are some upsides but they're mainly just convenience things. I'm not getting this magical bonding that I hear about. There are no rainbows and unicorns. Just Julia vaguely irritating me with her rough and lazy toddler latch and her random insistence on comfort nursing at really inconvenient times. The good news is that my supply is awesome, largely thanks to Julia, and Lana is doing great. We actually had to force Lana to accept a pacifier, since she kept trying to comfort suck but couldn't do that without getting a mouthful of milk. I'm hoping to get things evened out around here - get Lana on a schedule and get Julia out of her current needy state - in a few months and then work on weaning Julia. But who knows - two weeks ago I was all, "I'm going to nurse everyone until they self-wean!" Like the last 20 months of nursing, I'm just taking it a day at a time.

I don't have any new photos of the girls together, so here's Lana today, playing with her favorite lion. (Julia loved this lion too. I don't have any idea why but he is like, #1 favorite in this house.)

Why hello there friend.

I've missed you.

  

Let's chat.

Let's have intense conversation.

Let's joke around.

Let's be totally adorable together.

I love you lion.

Julia - 20 months

And of course my dear Julia is almost twenty months old now too! Robert and I keep looking at each other in disbelief, going, "She's a real little person!"

Julia's verbal language has really taken off since my last update. She's repeating words constantly and putting together two word sentences, mostly in the context of "More ___." (Robert swears she once said, "More popsicle please" but I haven't heard three words together yet.) She's dropped a lot of the sign language but still sometimes uses signs interchangeably or simultaneously. It feels like she's actually understanding less of what I say, but I think that's because I know she can handle more abstract sentences, so I'm upping the complexity of what I say to her. She's doing really well with shapes, and seems interested in counting and colors but I'm not sure she really gets the concepts yet. (I tried to teach her the alphabet but apparently all I did was teach her that all letters are "A." I guess she's not quite ready for that yet.) Pretend play is going well too, which is kind of nice. She can entertain herself for awhile, and even when I do play with her, it's a little bit more fun now. I'd rather spend twenty minutes playing with a dollhouse than stacking two blocks on top of each other.

She's sleeping about twelve hours a day total, splitting that between overnight and an afternoon nap. She's eating three meals a day and one or two snacks. We finally got rid of the high chair so she's on a booster seat at the table - wish we had done that sooner! She can drink from a cup but I still usually give her a lid and a straw. She eats what we eat and loves to ask us for a "snnnnack!" She adores fruit, does surprisingly well with veggies, is fine with most normal foods, and would eat butter all day long if I let her.

She's very interested in the toilet and very much dislikes diapers right now. I wish I had the time and energy to dedicate to potty training because I think we could really make some progress in that department. But, I don't, and I don't want to be inconsistent, so I'm taking her when I can, encouraging her awareness of the process, and keeping my expectations at zero.

Right now Julia loves bathtime, Scrappy, her dolls, her pretend ice cream cones, real popsicles, being outside, playing pretend, and flip flops. She hates not getting her way, which happens arbitrarily throughout the day. ("Julia, please no socks in the toilet." "Julia, please take the makeup brush out of your ear." "Yes Julia, you have to wear a shirt when we go to the store." Etc.) She has her meltdowns - more now that my attention is divided - but she's overall a really good-natured little girl. And she's funny; she makes us laugh and she's picking things up so quickly that it's really fun to be with her. 

The key to getting a laugh out of her:
 stand up above her on the bed, swing the fan around, and let it hit you in the head.

Bedhead.
No, I never did do anything about her hair. I love it like it is and she likes bows now so we're all good.

Pretending to take her temperature.

Sweet girl.

Maybe I'm on a roll and I'll do another post shortly on juggling the two of them because that deserves a post of its own!