Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Girls on Video

Felicity, Eating Cheerios For the First Time!


Lorelai, Our Little Drama Queen

This video incorporates the previously mentioned pouting, as well as the word 'dead,' which she learned when we encountered the mouse on the back porch. Oh, and throw in a little extra cuteness (her tummy hurts, so she needs to go to the doctor!), and there you have our daughter, Lorelai! :)

Sunday, January 27, 2008

How Do You Explain...

Chuck brought us a treat this morning (heck, maybe it was Nina? Chuck just seems more the hunter type... call me sexist)... there was a mouse on the back porch. Good kitty! Such a good hunter! I pointed it out to Shane, and of course, Lorelai came to see. She wanted to 'pet' it.

How do you explain death to a 2 year old? I'm afraid I didn't do the best job. In fact, I may have been a little too realistic. LOL. The word 'dead' and the phrase 'cats eat mice' was part of my explanation. LOL.

When I went outside to throw it over the edge of the deck (into the compost pile), I held it up so she could at least see the mouse (it was very cute - thankfully Chuck hadn't eaten it's head off or anything). Then she cried when she couldn't see it anymore.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Verbal Milestone Update

It's been so busy lately that I haven't really done any entries relating to Lorelai and Felicity that WEREN'T photos (on the 2008 Blog). There have been some cute moments recently, so I'm going to try my best to document some of the current 'milestones' here.

Most notably, Felicity is finally getting her first tooth!! About a week shy of 9 months and we've reached the tooth milestone! It's so new, there would not be anything to photograph, but I can feel it has broken through the gum. It just may explain why she woke up 3 times on Thursday night. Last night, she slept all night.

Felicity is *thisclose* to standing with no support. I've caught her letting go of her support object, but once she realizes 'Oh! I'm standing on my own!' she falls right down to her butt. I think I remember Lorelai doing the same thing. Shane predicts she'll be walking within a month, but I'm not predicting anything. LOL. I am so excited for her to begin walking, though... I want to see them both walking around, being able to actually play with each other on an entirely different level. Oh, it's making my eyes well up just thinking about it! Felicity is a speed-crawler, especially if she hears you coming up behind her... she gives a high-pitched giggle and starts crawling faster. She loves when I dance with her, especially when I add a bit of bouncing motion, same as Lorelai. She is a complete paper magnet - if there's paper in the floor somewhere, she'll find it! It's like she's got paper radar or something.

We transitioned out of the infant carrier just before we left for Texas, so she's been in the big-girl carseat for a month now and it's been great. A lot easier not having to lug the chunky monkey around by a handle.

Both girls are now wearing a size 4 diaper. Felicity is wearing anywhere between 6/9 and 12 month clothing. Lorelai is anywhere between 18 months and 2T. Felicity is on the brink of being ready for size 2 shoe. Lorelai is about a 5 1/2 shoe size.

Lorelai. Oh, our sweet Lorelai. She is such a precious little girl. Her personality astonishes me. Today she surprised us with a 'pout' performance. It was completely fabricated, which made it even cuter. She was in the carseat coming home from the museum, and my mom had just told her she couldn't have something. She kind of whined a bit, but it didn't last long. Next thing we know, she's crossed her arms over her chest, tilted her head downward so her chin was practically resting on her chest, and pushed her lips out into an unmistakable pout. The best part? You could see the smile she was trying to hide. :) I wished I'd been in a position to take a picture, but I was driving. With enough cajoling from us, it turned into full-blown giggles.

At night, the routine is usually for Shane to get Lorelai ready for bed while I get Felicity ready for bed. I breastfeed Felcity in the glider while Shane puts Lorelai in the crib. He leaves us and the girls and I are there together while Felicity finishes eating. Lorelai normally tries to get me to read this, do that, get this, sing that song... When it's time to switch Felicity from one boob to the other, Lorelai provides commentary to inform me that the baby is now going to get the "Udder boobie." Last night, I had already fed Felicity from one boob while we were downstairs and I fed her from the other while we were upstairs in the nursery. When I went to put Felicity in the crib, Lorelai objected and informed me that I still had to do the "Udder boobie, Mama! Do dee udder boobie!" LOL.

My mom has been teaching Lorelai how to do the alphabet in sign language. Last night while I was feeding Felicity, we were singing a mixture of songs and I saw she was doing some hand movements during the alphabet. At first, I thought she was just moving her hands along to the tune, but then I realized the distinct formation of some of the alphabet signing. It was so adorable! I need to get my mom to teach me, so I can reinforce it. I used to know the alphabet in sign language, because the lady who used to babysit me was deaf. I'm sure I knew other signs too, but heck if I can remember them. My little sister Angelica had the same babysitter, so I learned a few on the days I would pick her up and drop her off, but a lot of that knowledge has disappeared too. I don't know if even she remembers. I remember 'flower' and that's about it. LOL.

Lorelai can count to 12 (it's not a typo... 12 seems to be her limit) without any assistance. And last night, she was rocking me in the glider (she reaches across the crib and grabs onto the back of the glider). She would rock me, "One. Two. THREE!!!" and then let go of the glider. Next, she'd say, "One. Two. Three. FOUR!!!" and let go.

One. Two. Three. Four. FIVE!!
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. SIX!!

It was interesting to see that counting progression. And she did the same thing tonight, kind of. I was putting the clean dishes away from the dishwasher and she came to help me. She grabbed the spoons and counted, "One. Two. Three. Four. Five." As she went to put the fifth spoon in her hand, it fell onto the floor. She picked it up and put it back into her hand. She then reached down to pick up more spoons from the dishwasher and counted, "Six. Seven. Eight." Even though she had an interruption, she continued from where she left off in the counting process.

We're still working on saying the alphabet. She doesn't go much farther than E-F-G. I know she knows them though, because when we sing, she mouths each letter, but when it comes down to her singing the song by herself, she barely does it.

That's about it for right now. I'm going to think of more things, because I KNOW there are more things I want to document.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

One, Two, Three...

Lorelai's version of counting:

One
Do
Tee
Bore
Bive
***edited to add***
Dix
Deben
Eight
Nigh
Den
Yeben
Delve

:)

Thursday, January 03, 2008

A New Project

I've seen this spreading across the internet since the beginning of the new year, and I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon... Sooooo, my goal is to post one picture for each day of 2008. Some will be of me, Shane, the girls, or some random thing to capture what life might be like on any given day.

To keep areas separate, I created a '365' blog, so I can have the freedom to still post the family pictures here at The Priest Clan. The additional blog will be located at:

http://thepriestclan365.blogspot.com/

If I get behind, leave a bunch of messages to motivate me. :)

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Stay Tuned...

We are finally back from Texas... the second half of the trip to Texas didn't go as well as the first half! LOL. I knew making that initial post would jinx me! The trip back to NC went a little better, but I still managed to develop an eye twitch from all the stress (believe me... an infant and a toddler trapped in a car for 3 days is NOT enjoyable). Thankfully, we finally got home Monday evening and had Tuesday to do a little relaxing. Today it was back to the daily grind. :(

We have some pictures from the trip, as well as a few taken in this new year. There are actually a good number of pictures from earlier in December that I still have to post. We got a new computer in December as well, so I need to get all the photo editing software installed on the new computer. There isn't enough time in the evenings when I come home from work, but I'll definitely get to it by the weekend. Just hold tight a few more days and we'll have LOTS of new material. :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Happy New Year!
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